A new addition to the family

Puppy

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Isn't he cute?? I have no idea what to name him. I adopted him from Sugar Bear Rescue Team. He's 11 weeks old, 9.5 lbs, and full of so much fun energy. So far he hasn't messed in my apartment and I've been paying close attention to make sure he doesn't. When I took him outside the first time he went #1 almost immediately so hopefully he got the hang of it when he was at Petsmart waiting to be adopted. I'm not going to get my hopes up though. I got him a crate so he has a place of his own to sleep and chill out. He hasn't actually gone inside yet though. I think he likes my couch... Ruht Ro.

Have any suggestions on a name?

Thanks Ike, My First Paid Day Off

Today I don't have to go to work because of the blackout Cincinnati had over the weekend - and I get paid for it! Salary is so cool. Technically I am working from home because my boss is going to call me. We are going to discuss my new assignment and what my responsibilities are for the next 2 years.

The winds over the weekend reached up to 80 mph. All of Cincinnati including downtown had there power fail. When my power was out I couldn't listen to music while I was unpacking, so genious me decides to go to the fitness center to work out. Now if the power was out in my building why would it be any different in the fitness center? Its not. So when I realized the treadmills weren't going to work I decided to run outside. Needless to say the wind did a number on my legs. I was able to see all the damage around the city though: trees laying across roads, telephone poles on top of cars, all the restaurants and shops closed, fences that fell over, and shingles flying off roofs. But look! I survived!

My apartment had power yesterday when I got home from orientation around 5:30pm - more than 24 hrs later. Cincinnati is still trying to recover from all the damages and the building I am supposed to report to doesn't have electricity yet. They said it could take up to nearly a week to restore all the damages. I don't see this as a bad thing. It could be much worse. We were lucky only to lose a couple trees, poles, cars, etc. We could have lost a lot more.

Finally starting to get settled

Two days until I start my new job with Procter and Gamble and I am finally starting to get my apartment in order. I have been in Ohio for nearly two weeks and for the first week I was working on finding a different apartment because the first apartment turned out to be in a really, really bad neighborhood. Only a block away from the building we saw two men getting arrested and not to far from that we saw a hooker. When I went to the grocery store down the street we were asked for money twice within 5 minutes. I was not prepared to live in that type of neighborhood alone and without family or friends around.

Instead I am paying only $150 more per month to live in a gated community with a parking garage, pool, fitness center, and business center. It's called The Drexel at Oakley right across from Hyde Park Plaza (which has a Panera Bread - very dangerous). If you click on The Lincoln Property Company you will see pictures and information about my apartment. Thank god they had something available!

I am still in the process of unpacking and decorating. As soon as it looks halfway decent I promise to post pictures. I will have to get some pictures of the city too at some point to show you where I am living. Wish me luck on my first day!

during my break

For the past four years it has been nothing but structure in my life. Between keeping my schedule organized and managing part time jobs, extra curriculars, and my social life, I have always had something going on. I rarely had time to break and just watch TV which is the main reason I don't follow series shows or movies; I can only follow 30 min sitcoms. And even though I love to work out and dance, the amount of time I can spend doing these things has been very minimal.

Graduation was two days ago and today was my last day working at Barnes and Noble. I officially don't have a schedule to follow until September 15th (besides following through with relocation). And for the past couple weeks I have been doing my best to see as many people as possible. In fact, I don't think I have ever eaten soo much food in my life over a 2 week span. Whenever I meet my friends its, "Lets do lunch." or, "Lets get together for dinner." and, "then we can go into the city and get some drinks."

Last night I met Em, Erin, and Eddie (I am now just realizing there names all start with E's) for dinner and we cooked in Em and Erin's new apartment. It was a 3 course meal:

Appetizer - Brie and Bread, Mini quiche
Dinner - Rotisserie Chicken, Baked Potato with Broccoli and Cheese, Boiled carrots with Brown Sugar
Dessert - Carvel cake to celebrate the graduation and the new apartment!

This meal took a good three hours to cook, eat, and clean up. And this isn't the only meal that encompassed this amount of food.

It is so incredibly nice to have someone call me and ask if I am free at that moment to get together and be able to say, "Absolutely, I'll be right over." I am totally taking advantage of it.

:-p

Graduation Pictures

my new apartment

a new chapter

I am finally graduated from Wentworth. Can you beleive it?? I certainly cannot. I feel like in another two weeks I will be back to start the fall semester. We had our graduation ceremony yesterday and as soon as it was over I tried finding people I wanted to say bye to and there were just wayy too many people. So for those of you that I didn't get to talk to, I am very sorry.

SO now what to do!? Well I have 13 days until I leave... which means I have 13 days to try and spend as much time with my friends and family while still trying to get everything situated with my new apartment and packing all my belongs. Actually, I don't have to pack anything because the movers pack for me! Insane, I know. This move is soo different from the move I made to Indiana. When I went to Indiana I knew I was coming back in 6 months. Everything was temporary: my furniture, my kitchen supplies, my limited amount of clothing. With this move, everything is permanent. I can buy furniture that I know will be an investment and need to last me a long time. It's quite possible that I will find a house after a couple months of me living out there so I need to start looking for furniture now. Plus, I have to bring everything. It's not like I can just leave stuff here and I can come back for it. I don't have a way to take it out there.

Yesterday I went to Ikea to take advantage of the tax free weekend. It was a disaster. I walked in, and I was with Eddie, so each of us grabbed a map and pencil and noticed that there is a shopping list on the back of the map! So we started writing two lists - a wish list, and a list of things in the store I actually wanted to buy. The wish list turned out to be extremely long.

Blender
Dishes
Glasses
Kitchen hand towels
A table for the foyer
shoerack
jacket hangers
entertainment center
couch/loveseat
table for the laundry room
Wicker furniture for the porch
Plants
Mirrors
Night Tables

... and the list goes on. As for things in the store that I wanted - I would see something I like and write it down and then see something else in replace of the first and then I couldn't decide between the two. So then I just decided to not buy anything and just take pictures of stuff I knew I liked.

It can be soo over whelming. I am trying to take it step by step but the excitement of having my first apartment, and being able to decorate it my way, is taking over. But right now thats the only thing I am excited about besides my new job.

I am not excited, however, to leave and live in an apartment - alone - without a roommate - ugh so weird. I made the decision a long time ago to go out there. And for good reason - to have a fulfilling start for my career, continue my education, and to discover me (myself, what I want in life, my beliefs, etc).

And I realized that my goals are what create my life and define who I am. And if I can't pursue those goals and dreams, then I waste the ability to dream. And sometimes circumstances hold me back but that doesn't mean I am going to give up on them. Circumstances are merely a bump in the road I am traveling. I just have to keep driving and keep looking ahead at what kind of opportunities are waiting for me.

For instance, this spring '08 my yoga studio was having a training session for people who wanted to become yoga instructors. I so badly would love to become a yoga instructor. Yoga has done so many good things for me. It has allowed me to become one with myself and understand what my body needs from me to live a healthy life (Now I just need to listen to it). And I would love to reach out to people who need this kind of understanding. Well the training costs money, a good amount of money, and I couldn't afford it, but that doesn't mean that I can't go buy books about it and gain knowledge and prepare for the next training session by saving money and continuing to practice, right?

So I am onto another journey - a journey that is taking me to Cincinnati, OH.