Life Update!

So!

In my last post about the blog birthday, I jokingly said part of the festivities would be a three-week silence. Well, here we are on April 27 with no posts since then. Excellent prognostication on my part. But I DO have good reasons for it.

1. Easter weekend in NJ: Stacy, Matt, Rachel and I drove up for the weekend, and the family proved themselves to be every bit the asylum escapees they are (in a good way, of course!). It really was a fun time though. It's always good to see everyone since we don't get up that way all that often.

Everyone loved Rachel, of course (as I knew they would), and I don't think anyone really embarrassed themselves, which is really a bonus. We ate at White Castle (bad for the heart, good for the soul) and a diner for breakfast before we left.

2. CHICAGO! The next weekend, Rachel and I flew to Chicago for a nice extended weekend. It's her favorite city ever, and I'd never been. Combine that with her sister living there and Tanner living there for another couple of months at least and why not?

I have to say I was very impressed. I mean, of course I was -- it's Chicago. It's not like I thought I wasn't going to like it. Very cool city though. We stayed at this pretty nice hotel in Lincoln Park, right across the street from the botanical gardens and reasonably close to Lake Michigan.

And, yes, it was windy in Chicago; however, as I learned during my audio tour on the 95th-floor observatory of the John Hancock building, there are 37 cities in the U.S. that are technically windier than Chicago. Also, Chicago is not named The Windy City because of windy weather, but rather windbag politicians trying to get the World's Fair in the late 19th century. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.


I will have pictures from Chicago, and I will upload them to Facebook next week. The delay is due to:

3. I moved to a new apartment! Yes, it's true. I now have a one-bedroom apartment in Gaithersburg, Md., just outside of DC, in a great little neighborhood called the Kentlands. I'm within walking distance to a TON of little local shops and stores, plus the usual Giant, Whole Foods, Petsmart, Michael's, K-Mart, Chipotle, Five Guys, Panera, etc. Walking distance!
I moved to the suburbs, and I still hardly have to drive anywhere! There's a bus stop maybe 50 yards from my building that'll take me to a Metro station to come downtown for work, too.

So! You may be asking yourself why I moved to the suburbs when I loved living in the city so much. Good question.

Two main reasons above all else -- affordability and large dog approval. Consider the following: for approximately $1,400/month, I could get a 400 sq. ft. studio apartment downtown or a 950 sq. ft. two-bedroom apartment outside the District. Sooo yeah. There's that. Also, not too many apartment buildings downtown were cool with dogs who weighed more than 30 pounds. Allie weighs around 60-65. I can pass her off for 50-55 when need be because she's so lean. But no one will believe a black lab/border collie mix is 30 pounds.

And that's that. I was able to get a really nice and spacious 650 sq. ft. one-bedroom apartment for FAR less than a DC apartment would have been.

Now, why Gaithersburg? I now live 2.5 miles (a five-minute drive) from Rachel's house. No more 45-min drives through the northern DC ghetto! Right up the street! Fooooooor the win.

Barring unforeseen extraordinary circumstances, I will not be moving again until I buy a house or townhouse or condo or something. This marked my third residence-to-residence move in a less than a year and a half. I'm done. I will live here for at least two years, too.

And next time I move, you're damn right I'm hiring movers. I recently bought a bed, a couch, two end tables, two night stands and a new dresser. Everything but the couch (which will hopefully be delivered this weekend) is in the apartment. Combine that with my 55" HDTV and my kick-ass entertainment center, and what you get is too much damn work for me to move myself again.

Matt, Rachel and Rachel's dad helped me out this time, and my God I don't know what I would have done with them. A infinite number of thank yous to them.

BUT! The good news is I get to have Allie back now! I really cannot thank my parents enough for looking after her since November. I was in a tough spot, and, as usual, they really bailed me out. I haven't seen her since Christmas though, and I really miss having that crazy dog around. LOOK AT THIS FACE!!!


Oh Allie. End of May! Rachel and I will be going to Charlotte for Jay and Emily's wedding, and I'm picking her up then!

4. Weezer concert! Yes, I know. This item would be much more exciting if it were 1996, but c'est la vie. Rachel, Matt and I are going to see Weezer Friday night! If it were 1996, they'd pretty much play the Blue album and Pinkerton (two essentially perfect rock albums) back-to-back. That would be SO. GOOD. But, alas, they have quite a few mediocre-at-best albums to choose from now (Make Believe, the Red album, Raditude).

Don't get me wrong, there are some catchy songs off those albums (Pork and Beans, Greatest Man that Ever Lived, etc.), but they're a FAR cry from Across the Sea, Say it Ain't So, El Scorcho and Buddy Holly.

Oh well. I'm still looking forward to it. As I've mentioned here before, previous success will always guarantee I'll check out new Weezer releases even though I inevitably come away disappointed. Still, hopefully they'll play mostly their old, awesome stuff.

Success! I've written a novel and updated my blog!

To come:

Pictures of the Nats game I went to with Matt
Pictures from the trip to Chicago with Rachel
Pictures of my new apartment
Etc.

Life is good.
-B