Big change?

I moved to Minneapolis on Thursday, May 22nd. My mom was here from Friday May 23rd to Tuesday, May 27th with her fiancee, Ken. My boyfriend was here until Sunday, June 1st. I started my job on Monday, June 2nd. With hardly spending anytime prior in my life alone, I've spent the last six days entirely alone in a city nonetheless while taking the bus for transportation (a.k.a. not my ~general~ life). I've also walked and walked and I started the Whole30 diet on June 1st. Lots of huge changes, really. My brother called me yesterday, June 6th, and mentioned how different everything must feel and just to see how I was doing. That's kind of when this whole thing hit me... it doesn't feel weird. Am I just adaptable? Is Minneapolis so fabulous that I don't notice the change? Is it too soon for it to kick in? I don't know. But so far it's great.

(picture of the Mississippi River, a two block walk from my new job)

Moving on up (literally)

Minnesota has been fabulous. The last two weeks here without work, with my boyfriend and my pets, have been amazing. I love living in this city and have already found tons of advantages over Tallahassee, a city I relatively liked. But my boyfriend left this morning to go back to Florida for 58 long days and I'm stuck here, alone. I haven't spent more than one night alone in 24.5 years, so this will be an interesting experience. As someone who probably had a clinical phobia of the dark/home intrusions at one point (self-diagnosed but I can conduct clinical interviews), I've made the decision to not be scared and to try to embrace being alone as well as I can. Today I started the Whole30 eating program to hopefully begin a healthier life in the healthiest city in the country and I am going to be exercising as much as possible, walking around the lakes and doing Ballet Beautiful. I start work tomorrow so that should be a new, albeit scary and busy, adventure as well.

Even as I left Florida, far enough far enough wasn't far enough...

The time has finally come! I'm moving out of Florida in two days... last Thursday and Friday I went to two Modest Mouse shows. This seems especially topical given Modest Mouse's semi-aversion to Florida (see their song, "Florida"). Despite being really excited about my move, I can't help but feel anxious and a little apprehensive. What am I going to do with my life? Will I like it? Am I being smart or naive? Modest Mouse song lyrics, always a little depressing but somehow kind of uplifting at the same time, have been resonating with me.

"Looking towards the future
We were begging for the past
Well we knew we had the good things
But those never seemed to last
Oh please just last"

(picture is from MM, night 1 in Orlando; we had the perfect spot - right in front of Isaac Brock and up front both nights)

Moving on...

 

Today was my last day at my first full-time "adult" job. I've been with the lab for more than four years, since I was a sophomore in college, and for how uncomfortable and weird it is to be moving on, I'm surprisingly not sad. It's truly bittersweet. I start my new position in 24 days.

(painting: Oleanders by Vincent Van Gogh)

Moving Sight Unseen

In about six weeks, I'll be moving from Tallahassee, Florida to Minneapolis, Minnesota. The closest I've been to Minnesota is Iowa, so everything I know about the city has come from the internet and advice from people who have been there. I've lived in Florida for over ten years, and before that I was too young for the places I've lived (Texas, Tennessee, California) to have a substantial impact on my life. I'm most nervous for the obvious insane change in climate, but I'm also excited and anxious to live in a real city and to get away from Florida... I'm probably one of the palest and most anti-beach Floridians there is, so maybe it will be a good change? At least that's what I'm hoping for. 

Moving sight unseen is obviously anxiety-provoking. The hardest part so far has definitely been finding a place to live. I stalked Craigslist for weeks and as my moving day got closer, I got more and more nervous that I wouldn't find a place to live. Then what would I do?! I'd be a girl in a U-Haul with two cats and a rabbit. Luckily I signed a lease Friday on a little one bedroom in Uptown that's only .5 miles from Lake of the Isles. I don't really know what any of that means since I've never been to Minneapolis, but from what I gathered Uptown was the right way to go. I'm terrified to not have a garage, but at least I got an off-street parking spot (also something I've never had to
  think about). Besides about five pictures, I don't know what my apartment looks like. And aside from about three phone conversations, I don't know what my job will be. But, as the quotes I've been seeing all over Pinterest assure me, when one door closes another opens, if your dreams don't scare you they're not big enough, and you can't have change without closing a chapter. As a creature of routine this is going to be insane in so many ways, but I'm (hopefully) ready to tackle it...

Naming a blog is hard.

When I decided I wanted to start a blog, the next natural question was what to name it.

I went through a few things in my head. First, I'm moving to Minnesota. Minneapolis Millennial? Too much. Moving Parts? Taken, and (like everything else) sounds like a band name. I think the real issue was that I'm not very lofty or whimsical as a person, but most blogs (including most blogs I love) have lofty or whimsical names.

I then started to list, with the help of a friend, my favorite things, hoping it would give me something to work with. My list went something like:

- Pizza
- Margaritas
- Poodles
- Reality TV
- Not exercising
- Sleeping
- Not working
- Eating
- Food

This wasn't super helpful in terms of naming a blog or in terms of self-reflection. I literally considered "Vegetative State" for about three seconds before my friend pointed out how offensive it is and I realized how much it (again) sounds like a band name. Although Pizza & Poodles may have actually been a more appropriate and perhaps catchier name...

I decided to go with anti-blog for a few reasons. First, it wasn't taken (aside from the exact URL), second, I knew my blog would never be a place of "look at my fashion/delicious food/fabulous life" like most popular blogs, and last, it was short and catchy.

Love,
the blog lover who started a blog named anti-blog. 

Quarter-life crisis?

This post could also be called "Whiny Millenial" or "Generation Y", but really... I'm going through a quarter-life crisis! Having a job, a good job lined up, and my life ahead of me - so tragic (ha)!

That aside, I decided to start a blog for a few reasons.

1. I loved having a livejournal back when I was a teenager. This feels like a 2014-extension of that and maybe a little more adult, too.
2. After having my life planned out, I changed paths last minute (almost literally) and now I'm not sure who I am or what I want!
3.  I am moving from Florida to Minnesota, which is huge. It will be good to have a space to track this time in my life.

I'm excited to have my own little corner of the internet again.

(photo: Éduard Vuillard, Jeune fille au chat)