One Monh

It's been four weeks since moving to our new location; it's getting a tad better.

Sunday mornings have a typical routine spent running, driving to Publix to pick up the NY Times, and then driving to Starbucks to read the NY Times (for whatever reason, the NYTimes supplier of NW Florida does not deliver to any of the Starbucks in the region. Maybe he/she is protesting their 'no decaf after 12' policy). Then it's a quick lunch out, trip to the commissary (and sometimes back to Publix for produce and/or meat), nap, and if it was like yesterday, an afternoon of The Kardashians.

Not quite the home depot, bed bath and beyond of Old School, but eerily close. It would be fun to decorate a house, unpack a box, or shop.

There are certainly highs and lows to living here.

The lows: the newspaper. With each move, the local newspapers get smaller and smaller. And now more than ever, it's scary to read the locals' take on national issues. Some of the sound bytes, quotes, and letters to the editor are jaw dropping.

The highs: Thursday night I crashed the local running club's Thursday night run. As we were waiting for 5:30 to roll around, I was the only female amongst pierced and tattooed men, most of whom were shirtless. In otherwords, I'm thinking, "What am I doing HERE?! Where are the turtles?!"

(there really weren't any turtles to be spoken of.) People welcomed me, and nobody made fun of me when they asked my normal pace (10:30). One of the male members ended up running with me (good thing as I would have be lost with all the turns we made). It's hard for me to talk while running 5 miles at a 9:15/9:30 pace...so here's hoping I'm not dubbed the new snooty one. The pizza, talking, laughing and beer following the run was probably the best part.

Finally, after 4 weeks of not meeting anyone, I was meeting locals and socializing. Quite a high for the week! Now if only we can move into a house and get our house hold goods out of storage!