Sigh of Relief!

I am officially settled into my new place! It feels really good to be here. I am now reunited with all of my personal belongings that have been baking to a crisp in a storage unit all summer. Our sublet was great, and it was nice to see so much of John, but now that I'm in my new place with my two new and wonderful roommates, I can throw my anchor overboard.

The new house is awesome! We have the lower level of a lovely two story house with a gigantic deck, gardens, a compost pile, a fire pit, a driveway (a huge perk after three months of street parking), washer and dryer (another huge perk after three months of hauling everything to the laundromat for 3 hours a weekend), concrete floors, a plethora of windows that let in lots of natural light, a piano that belongs to my roommate and can be played by me anytime, and my very own room.

Tonight I was forced to kill three unwanted intruders to my new abode. Let's just say they are of the large insect world and seem to be more common in Texas than Pennsylvania. I like my two human roommates a lot though, and I don't think I will need to fwap them with my slipper at all.

One is from Italy, but lived in Germany for about ten years, and thus has an interesting accent. She runs her own business of executive cultural and language training. She's really into salsa dancing and has very good posture - a good influence for me! She's really outgoing and vivacious and brings a very lively presence to the house.

The other one is my age and has been in Austin for college and beyond. She is a seamstress, but working as a photographer and graphic designer for a metal working craftsman shop until she can make enough money on her own as a seamstress. She's on the quieter side which is a nice balance... She also swims every night in Barton Springs pool, only a hop, skip, and a jump away, so that's fun too. She also brews her own beer, makes her own ice cream, and cooks lots of yummy smelling things.

I foresee us getting along pretty well. There's enough space for all of us and they seem to be pretty easy going and communicative about house stuff.

The move ended up taking two whole days... I missed the second day of lugging heavy furniture across town in triple digit temperatures because we had a field trip for work. I got to spend all day Friday on Town Lake, canoeing, swimming, snorkling, and sharing a really special day with our campers. I'm always so proud of them when we venture into the world and they get to interact with people. The canoe instructors and trip leaders really love our group - I think they think our kids are generally hilarious and lots of fun. As with last session, a highlight for the kids was seeing turtles sunning themselves on logs along the water's edge, as well as an ornate crayfish claw they found while snorkling.

On top of moving, John had the bar exam this week. It was in Dallas and was two and half days long. After seeing how much he had to study, I'm reaffirmed in my calling as a social worker. No law school in my future! It's customary among his buddies to take a post-bar exam trip to unwind and reward yourself. Lucky for us, his friend is getting married in Seattle this coming weekend, so we'll be trekking up to Vancouver on Tuesday, to Seattle for the weekend, and then to Portland on Sunday. I have good friends in Seattle and Portland who we'll be spending time with. I'm so excited to see the Pacific Northwest - I just picture it being so crisp and fresh. Can't wait!