Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Three weeks into living at Jeff's and so far everything seems to be going all right. I haven't spent as much time being bored and lonely as I first anticipated; Jon's been driving up when I don't have to work and I've made the trek down to see him a few times as well (though I only had to drive once thus far). He starts class next week, so I imagine things will change, but I don't know how much yet.
I haven't unpacked much, just the essentials basically. My lack of space here (as compared to having a whole apartment to myself) prevents me from doing much more than that. I need to get rid of some more clothes for sure. I wish I knew some people who wore my size, lol, so I could give them to friends instead of always donating them or taking them to the consignment shop. It'd be much less work.
On the plus side, not having a lot of space to do much else has encouraged me to do more reading and writing. Strangely, work is a good place to write (on lunch break at least) because there are usually no other distractions. We'll see if anything worthwhile comes of it.
Posted by Rachel at 8:00 PM |
Friday, May 22, 2009
It's been decided (by me) that I'll be going to live with Jeff for a few months; Jon wanted me to come with him but I've decided that it's just too soon. So he's going to stay with his friend Chuck (he's going to one of the branch campuses now since the Lansing campus was already full) and we're going to try the long-distance thing.
In some ways I'm disappointed. I was very much ready to give ON my resignation notice and get out of here finally. Detroit isn't out of state but it's at least somewhere new. But I'd really just be running away, I think, because I really feel that Jon and I aren't ready for that step. Or maybe he is, but I'm not. So it looks like I'll be spending my summer lonely and bored in Carrollton... this is the first summer in a long time that I'm not actually looking forward to anything. The nice weather will be a definite plus. I'm already dreading winter; this last one was particularly long and difficult. But I don't want to think about that.
New York was fun. Didn't do much sight-seeing in favor of wandering around and shopping and such, but we did make it to Times Square, Chinatown, Little Italy, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Museum of Natural History, and at least the ferry that goes right by the Statue of Liberty. Spent some time in Central park as well - pictures are on facebook.
Guess I should probably go do something productive now.
Posted by Rachel at 11:56 AM |
Monday, April 27, 2009
Still just waiting for the time to pass, mostly. It's a crappy way to live life, wanting days and weeks of it to be over when (at least from what I keep hearing) the whole thing goes by so fast anyway.
I've cashed in some of my PTO at work to get a bigger check this week and decided to stay here at my place, alone, for one more month. I figure come June first I'll either be on my way to Lansing or else taking Jeff up on his offer to stay with him for a couple months.
Jon and I leave for New York on May 8th; it hasn't quite sunk in yet but I am getting excited for it. I haven't been on a real trip out of state since spring break last year, and I haven't been to NYC since summer of '04 (and that was only for a day). Flight and hostel are both booked and again, I'm just waiting for the time to pass.
I am delighted, however, to see that the buds on the trees are finally growing and opening up. It's actually starting to feel like spring instead of fall now. Everything seems much better when the weather is nice.
Posted by Rachel at 11:06 AM |
Monday, April 06, 2009
So it seems my roommate problems may be solved. One bit of information that I've kind of neglected to share with the class is that Jon is moving to Lansing, whether or not he gets into med school (though if he does get in it will likely be as soon as the beginning of June). And he's asked - well, more invited - me to come with him. Meanwhile the landlords are still giving me a $100/mo. break on rent, and Jeff and I have discussed the possibility of me coming to live at his place for the summer (which would help both of us out financially). The prospect of living in Carrollton is a little exciting, and the prospect of moving to Lansing even more so. I've been ready for a change of scenery for so long... So now I guess my future too depends at least in part on whether or not Jon makes it in. If he does (which seems most likely but isn't guaranteed - should find out any day now), I'll probably just deal with the rent one more month and stick it out here; if not it'll be off to Jeff's for a few months.
Part of me is ready to start packing now. I've already started to consider what I would do with my furniture and who I could ask to help me move; another part of me, despite being truly anxious to get away for easily a year now, is a little sad at the prospect of leaving. What "getting away" meant a year ago and what it means now are two entirely different things and even what's changed in the last 3-4 months is a little overwhelming sometimes. Considering the reality of truly closing this "chapter" of my life (if I were writing a book I'd call it "George Street") makes me... Well, I don't know what it makes me. Thoughtful? Ponderous? (Is ponderous even a word?) This place has become home, despite all of (or maybe because of, more accurately) the good and bad that's occurred while I've been here. Mostly good, but some of it is gone and some of that makes it a little hard to be here at times. Regardless, even though July first only makes two years, this is the longest I've been in one place since I moved out of my dad's after high school. But it feels like it's time to move on.
Posted by Rachel at 11:17 AM |
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Wednesday I took the day off from work (not that I necessarily could afford to, but I've got almost two weeks of paid time off saved up) so that Jon and I could go to Owosso. I've been talking up the record store there for months, and I figured it'd be a good opportunity for him to meet that half of the family (especially since I met his parents before we were even official). So he met my grandparents for about 3.5 minutes, and we saw my mom's new house (because she's been bugging me about that for weeks now). On our way back up through Owosso, we stopped at Jer and Sonya's place to say hi. My mother and my grandma both implored me to "come and spend a day" with them (that's kind of our thing - I drive out there [or, on rare occasions, they drive up here] and we spend the day shopping, etc.) and Jer/Sonya informed us of Jonah's first birthday party on April 5th...
And since Jake and I broke up, I've been indefinitely (and understandably) banned from "Mythbuster's night" over at Caleb and Elaine's. But they still invite me over about once a week and cook dinner, and Elaine and I bead jewelry or crochet (I have a blanket that I've been working on since high school finally near completion) and we watch TV. Actually, the week Jon was in Florida, they invited me over a couple more times - we spent a day shopping downtown and in Bay City, and they had a game night Friday night with a group of their other friends. The game night especially was a lot of fun - there were something like eight of us playing Scattergories (for the first time ever, in my case) and I felt a lot less "out of place" among their friends than I used to.
And now that Anna and Kelly are both back in town I get to see more of them too. A couple Mondays ago when it was particularly nice out, Kelly and I went rollerblading out on the trail that starts on Ojibwa Island... Neither one of us has rollerbladed in recent history, so I imagine it was fairly comical for passersby (luckily there weren't many). We went and got ice cream at Fuzzy's afterward - hopefully something that will become another weekly tradition once it starts to stay warm. Anna's been working like crazy at the greenhouse, but last Sunday Chuck decided to ride his motorcycle up to Bay City and stopped to pick her up on his way through, so the two of them met Jon and I at the Texan then rode out to the Red Eye to warm up for awhile (the day was a little more brisk than anticipated, I think).
And even Jeff has resurfaced! Anna and I randomly stopped at his house the other day, and he was actually there. We hung out with him and Bentley (his new dog) til he had to leave for work. Then a couple Fridays ago, he and Anna met up with Jon and me at the Red Eye again.
The point is, I guess I never really considered just how much of a "network" of people I have in/around Saginaw. It's going to be weird leaving them (or at least putting distance between myself and them) when I do finally move. Makes it a little easier to understand, I guess, why people sometimes stay in one place their whole lives. Not that that's something I want to do. But I never used to consider fully the effect that not knowing anyone might have on my experience living in a new city. Another challenge to overcome, I guess. Lol in the meantime, I'm pretty good at living in my own little world, for awhile, anyway.
Posted by Rachel at 9:49 AM |
Thursday, March 26, 2009
I really want to write something but I'm feeling completely uninspired. Maybe it's time to start sitting downtown again - though now that I think about it, nothing brilliant ever really came to me while I was there. At least, not that I can recall.
I started making a playlist Tuesday of music that inspires me to write. I think right now it's got like 90 songs on it, though I've still got some weeding out to do. Ratatat comprises much of the list; two of the poems I've written (both of which Cardinal Sins published) were inspired in part by them. I'm hoping once I get that set I can put it on a CD or my mp3 player and start making some progress.
Speaking of which, if anyone has some new and cool music they'd like to share with me (preferably not pop or country) feel free to do so.
Also, the official search for a roommate has now begun, because I've just declared it so. I can probably swing April by myself but I really don't want to keep affording it all after that. The goal is to start saving money, not to continue living paycheck to paycheck. The only problem is that I don't know how much longer I'm going to be here myself. Luckily there's no lease involved, even for someone new moving in. Hm. I just wish I knew what was going to happen within the next couple months. At least part of that requires figuring out what I want to do, and I can be pretty bad at that.
Posted by Rachel at 4:40 PM |
Monday, March 23, 2009
I just made dinner - first time I've actually cooked something on the stove in weeks - and now I'm waiting for Jon to get here so we can eat. It's nothing spectacular, just some Manwich sloppy joes and some macaroni and cheese. High School Musical mac and cheese, because for some reason it's cheaper than the normal Kraft stuff. Whatever ridiculous cold I've had for the last two weeks (two weeks! My colds usually only last three days) finally seems to be subsiding, which means I'm actually starting to get a little energy back.
I worked 10-7 today. I usually hate mid shifts and today was no real exception, though it went by fairly steadily. It usually does when I resign myself to having my whole day wasted. They changed a few things around with my position, and I don't really think it's for the better, at least not in terms of my enjoyment of my job. For one, they finally gave the girl who's supposed to be in charge of the signage her keys and alarm code, which means they're taking me off of Friday signage. Granted, this was supposed to happen months ago, but it was kinda fun (is fun the right word?) to be in charge of something. Then the other day they decided to switch me, formerly in charge of the women's department, with the girl who was in charge of men's and kids' departments. Which means I now get to work in women's about 0% of the time, instead of the 99% I was before. Plus business is slow, which means there's not a lot to do in any of the departments...
At least I'm still mostly getting my 30 hours.
Posted by Rachel at 7:56 PM |
