Battles with Mother Nature

It snowed the day the packing crew came to box up our things for the move.
It snowed the day the movers came to load our stuff.
It iced the day we got here.  
It snowed on our first day of work.

Mother Nature has it out for us.  I'm not sure what we did to tick her off, but she definitely seems to be inconveniencing us on the key dates that we could really use good weather.  Today was our first day of work and we were both sent home early due to a winter storm.  I swung by Josh's office to pick him up on my way home.  It took 2 hours to drive a total of 10 miles.  Crazy!  Now I understand why the entire D.C. Metro area has to shut down when it snows...it's impossible to clear the streets efficiently with this many cars on the road.  We've been watching the snow from our living room window and it's been white out conditions for the last hour.  The weatherman said that by midnight we should have 7-10 inches.  I'm not gonna lie...I'm pretty excited at the possibility of a snow day tomorrow!

My first day of work was a bit strange and overwhelming to say the least.  Josh's first day went well except for a situation regarding where his temporary office is located.  Not the ideal first day of work either of us had wished for but we survived.

No more boxes!

North American Van Lines delivered our things on Friday and we immediately got to unpacking.  Josh and I were on a mission to get all 51 boxes unpacked and didn't leave the apartment for 48 hrs. 

I spent nearly all day Saturday getting the kitchen unpacked while Josh worked on setting up the surround sound system in the living room - which conveniently for him involved watching movies to "test out the sound quality."  Josh was amazed that I never cut myself with the box cutter, given my history with being clumsy with sharp objects.  But a few broken fingernails and lots of aches and pains later, it finally feels like home.

 
The only slightly disappointing thing about the apartment is the view...a Bob Evans restaurant and the post office.  At least it's just a short walk across the street if we need stamps.  We've explored the neighborhood a bit more and have located the grocery store, gas station, Starbucks, and Target.  Life is good as long as I know my way to Target. 
This morning I did a "test run" of the drive to my new office.  It's 5.5 miles away and took right at 30 minutes to get there.  I'd like my morning drive to not be too stressful, but it looks like I'm going to have to be a more aggressive driver.  Josh and I are both getting anxious for our first days at work.  I feel a bit jittery like it's the first day of school.  Will I make friends? Will I like the work I'm going to be doing?  What outfit should I wear?  Josh's commute to work will only be 10 or 15 minutes, he just needs to figure out what bus he needs to get on at what time.  We both start on Wednesday, so I'm sure I'll have lots to report on later this week!

1,100 Miles From Kansas

Well folks, we made it to Virginia!  Sitting in the car for 17 hrs was grueling, but we arrived here safely.  For the past 2 days we've been hanging out in our empty apartment and learning our way around the area.  The moving company is scheduled to deliver our things tomorrow.  In the meantime it's just us, the cat, an air mattress and the essentials.  Josh and I will both contribute posts to the blog - maybe Alex will even write once in awhile too.  I am not an eloquent writer - my thoughts are random and my blog posts will likely be as well.  We will do our best to post regularly, but for the first few months our posts will be sporadic.

On a side note, I want to apologize to motorists in the greater DC/VA area for my driving.  I learned to drive on country roads in Marion County, KS.  Where it's OK to drive down the center of the road as long as no one is coming and where stop signs are somewhat optional.  Drivers here scare the dickens out of me and I've already had to resort to what Josh calls, my "Dukes of Hazzard" driving skills to get us where we need to be.

We hope you'll follow along on our adventures...far from Oz.