Bad Ideas

Last night I decided that watching an old movie while eating dinner would surely cheer me up. So, I made my stir fry and popped in a Cameron Crowe classic - Say Anything.
Bad idea.
Why, you ask?
Of all the cheesy, classic, awesome 80s movies I could have chosen - this one takes place in Seattle. And it was actually filmed there. It's not the LA-Seattle of Grey's Anatomy or the Vancouver-Seattle of most everything from the mid 90's on, it's actually Seattle.

So that didn't help the homesick.

Companions

I really want one of these.
It's called an Ornate Horned Frog, but it's commonly called a Pac-Man Frog.
The albino ones are yellow, making them look even more like Pac-Man.
I've been watching Dead Like Me on DVD, and the main character "inherits" one in the second episode. I can't get over how cool they look.
I miss my cat and my dog, but I know I can't get one of those, especially since I don't know how long I'll be here. I thought about fish, but I can't keep fish alive. And I know you can't cuddle a frog, but that's not the point. The point is... I don't know what the point is.
The real point is, I can't afford a Pac-Man frog right now but someday I just might. And then I just might get one
Or not. But they are pretty cool looking.

Month-a-versarry

I've officially been here 1 month.
I anticipated that moving to a new city would be difficult, but that it would get easier. In some ways, it has gotten easier. I can find the library, the grocery store, and one coffee shop without getting lost. I've met some new people.
But...
I'm still horribly homesick. I moved because I was tired of being the girl who hadn't ever lived more than 90 miles away from where she was born. I wanted to discover who I was without the comfort of home and of family.
Who I am, so far, is the really homesick girl.
Moving away from home to go to college is such a different experience than moving to start a new job. When you start college you are surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the exact same boat as you, knowing hardly anyone and anxious to make friends and try new things. When you do what I did, and move to a new city to start a new job (or whatever), you are surrounded by people who already have their friends, their lives, and you have to figure out a way to fit yourself into the established pattern.
Which is not to say I'm giving up or coming home. As good as that sounds, especially on a Tuesday morning when my car won't start, or a Friday night when I don't have anyone to call, if I came home now it would be admitting defeat - something I don't do well.
I am meeting some awesome people and I am mostly having a really good time. I know it will get better as I continue to meet people and do new things, but I'm anxious for the fun to start. When does the fun start?
I'm thinking about joining this "social club" that organizes activities in the Austin area. They do things like kayak, hike, go wine tasting, that kind of stuff. It sounds both ridiculously lame and great at the same time - do I really want to pay money to hang out with people I don't know? On the other hand, how else am I going to meet people?
I'm going to consider it a while (and wait until I get a few more paychecks under my belt), then I might check it out.
I'm also pretty unhappy in my job, and am applying to several new ones. I hope to find something more in nonprofit/theatre work and less in corporate franchises.
I'm confident that things will get better and I will start having more fun. Especially now that the weather is starting to cool down (only 90 degrees today!). I can actually stand to be outside for more than 5 minutes.
It's 12:30 pm here now, so I should probably shower and decide what to do with myself for the rest of the day. Wish me luck.

Scary-stupid.

Same thing.

Wrong!

I needed a new battery. Which is always something you want to discover at 8am when you go to start your car to drive to work.

Lessons

They say you learn something new every day.

Saturday night I learned that if my car trunk lid is ajar just a little bit, for most of the day, my battery will die. I learned that when the battery is dead in a Ford Focus, the dome light and power locks work, but the engine will not turn over, and all the indicator lights will flash at you, spelling "You are an idiot" in morse code.

I also learned that people I have known for two hours will push my car out of its spot and give me a jump. So that was the silver lining. The car has been running fine, so thankfully I think it was just my idiocy and not a problem with the battery.

New cars, man. Crazy.

Plans

I'll be home for Christmas! 

I know it's quite a ways, off, but my plane tickets home for the holidays have been purchased, thanks to my grandpa's mileage points. Hooray! I think it's the best Christmas gift I can think of. I'll be coming in on December 22 and staying until the 2nd of January - which means New Years in Seattle! Hooray!

The Alamo Drafthouse

The Alamo Drafthouse is the best idea anyone ever had for a movie theatre.You go in, you sit down, you order food and beverage, you watch a movie. While eating really good food and/or drinking. Kids are not allowed unless it's "family night."

And tonight they had a "quote-along" to Evil Dead 2. Much like a sing along, favorite quotes were projected at the bottom of the picture for everyone to scream along to. Props were handed out to be thrown during the film (just like Rocky Horror!). Tonight's props: red streamers (for when blood streams out of the cabin walls), plastic eyeballs (for when an eyeball flies across the screen) and those little plastic confetti poppers (for when our favorite hero, Ash, shoots one of the Evil Dead in the face). 

Pretty awesome. 

They also show normal movies, which means I will probably never go to 

a different movie theatre again. Seriously. This is the best thing ever. Why doesn't every theatre have a full menu?

Also, apparently Bruce Campbell himself is going to be at the Alamo in October. Screening his new movie. Ummm awesome. The Chin, in person. Love it.

Another one

The only good thing on SNL in a long time:

Don't you kind of think that's actually how it would go?

Le Ford

As promised, here are some pictures of my (currently dirty) car.

I still don't have a license plate, that's supposed to come soon. I have to get it inspected next month - that's a crazy Texas thing that I'm not so sure about. It shouldn't be a problem, other than figuring out how to get it done.

I was told there would be rain.

Nothing to report on the weather front, I watched the news and Galveston and Houston got hit pretty hard, but we haven't even had any significant wind. I'm disappointed.

In other news, I love this:

Ike update.

Um so it's a little breezy, but other than that, no real wind/rain/other weather to report. There is, however, a HUGE SPIDER hanging out in its web on my front porch. I'd rather have the giant moths, thank you. 

So much excitement!

I'm watching the news as I sit here blogging, and the big news is all the football games being postponed due to Hurricane Ike and the tropical depression in the Pacific. The reporter just said "Texas is getting it from both sides," which made me giggle.

Anyways.

The eye of the hurricane is not supposed to "officially" make landfall until 1am tonight - but Galveston is already underwater as are many other areas of the coast. There are 17 shelters in the city of Austin housing people from the coast. Why do people even live here?

Last night I got a small preview of the excitement to come. I was in the shower (always an awesome place to be when things happen) at about 10pm. Suddenly the lights started to flicker, and there was a popping and a flash of light outside, then the power went out. While I was in the shower. Sweet.

So I did what any logical person would do, and finished my shower. Or maybe that's not what a logical person would do, because I did have a small fear that I was going to be electrocuted.

After finding my flashlight and getting dressed, I walked into the living room and saw police cars and firetrucks in the street in front of the house. I walked outside and looked up the street, and there was a branch in the power lines, arcing and sparking. Pretty cool. Except that our power was out for several hours (no a/c) and it was dark and all the neighbors were in front of my house forEVER. 

So, yeah. Branches fall into power lines here when there is no wind at all. And we have a "wind warning" until 7pm tomorrow. Awesome. Cross your fingers that a branch doesn't fall on my new car. Or, you know, me.

Oh, and hurricanes

First giant moths and ridiculous heat, and now a hurricane?

Austin is far enough inland that we will avoid the worst of Ike, but they are saying we could get hurricane force winds. Just in time for the weekend, too! 

Hopefully it will lose speed and just cause rain and mild winds here, but "city officials" are "urging residents" to "prepare." I'm still trying to figure out what that means, exactly. I have batteries in my flashlight, beer and tortillas in the fridge - that's probably not what they mean. 

Local Wildlife

The bugs here are crazy. The ants bite. There are fireflies. And then there was this: 

I realize there is no real frame of reference for the size of this thing.... but it had a wingspan of at least six inches. I've seen smaller birds.

It found a nice spot to live on the ceiling of our back porch for a few days. 

There are also cockroaches, but I like to pretend they don't really exist.

No geckos, though. Bummer.

Welcome to Texas, please enjoy the air pollution

This is posted on the National Weather Service's website for Austin, TX:

"AIR QUALITY ALERT MESSAGE
CENTRAL TEXAS CLEAN AIR FORCE
RELAYED BY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO TX
113 PM CDT FRI SEP 5 2008

...AIR POLLUTION WATCH LEVEL ORANGE...

AN AIR POLLUTION WATCH LEVEL ORANGE HAS BEEN ISSUED BY THE TEXAS
COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY FOR THE CENTRAL TEXAS CLEAN AIR
FORCE...FOR POSSIBLE HIGH OZONE IN THE AUSTIN AREA ON SATURDAY
SEPTEMBER 6, 2008.

WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BE FAVORABLE FOR OZONE TO REACH
AQI LEVEL ORANGE, UNHEALTHY FOR SENSITIVE GROUPS, ON SATURDAY
SEPTEMBER 6, 2008.

THE AIR QUALITY INDEX (AQI) SCALE IS DEFINED BY THE U.S.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY WITH THE FOLLOWING GUIDANCE FOR
LEVEL ORANGE: ACTIVE CHILDREN AND ADULTS, AND PEOPLE WITH
RESPIRATORY DISEASE, SUCH AS ASTHMA, SHOULD LIMIT PROLONGED
OUTDOOR EXERTION.

VOLUNTARY ACTION IS NEEDED TO HELP REDUCE AIR POLLUTION EMISSIONS AND
TO HELP PREVENT OZONE FORMATION. TO REDUCE OZONE POLLUTION...THE
CLEAN AIR FORCE URGES AREA RESIDENTS TO REDUCE VEHICLE TRIPS...
CARPOOL...RIDE THE BUS AND AVOID RUNNING GASOLINE ENGINES. OTHER
RECOMMENDED ACTIONS INCLUDE WAITING UNTIL AFTER 6 PM TO BUY GAS...
MOW LAWNS OR RUN ERRANDS."

Yikes. Also, I don't really know what it means, other than the air is bad here.

A better day

Things are better today - I called my work and said "look, I'm going to go crazy and/or bankrupt if I don't buy a car today. Can I skip work today?" and they said "we are awesome and we understand." Or something like that.

So I bought a car. I didn't end up with the Ford Ranger, because the dealership selling it was populated by idiots. I did, however, end up with a Ford. A Focus. I will post pictures later, it's actually a pretty nice car. I don't love it, but it will get good gas mileage and it's a 5-speed, which were my only qualifications. (Surprisingly difficult to meet, however.)

Whatever, someday I will have a sweet car. Right now I just need to get from point A to point B without fear of death or dismemberment.

Returned the rental car and gave them all my money. Being under 25 and renting a car sucks.

It's still hot here. 

The heat is affecting my appetite in a weird way - I'm not hungry until all of the sudden, I am REALLY hungry. Which can't be good for me.

I'm going to try and go see a movie tonight, just to convince myself further that I can have fun in Austin even though I don't know many people yet.

PS

I just looked at my list of things I needed to buy from a couple of days ago...

I still haven't bought any of those things. I'm no good at this "being a grown-up" thing.

Homesick (a little)

Today it really hit.

The homesickness. 

If I had a million dollars (or even a couple thousand and no pride), I probably would have come home today. 

Nothing specific, really. 

I started my new job and it's decent (more on that later).

I still don't have my car, my bank is annoying and car dealerships are obnoxious.

Just a general feeling - I can't have dinner with my parents this weekend. I looked into plane tickets for Christmas and they are EXPENSIVE. It's hard to talk to people on the phone because of the time difference. My mom sent me cookies and they are awesome.

General note for self: going to Starbucks while feeling slightly homesick is the opposite of helpful. All those Seattle reminders: not productive.

Started the job today - lots of training but also some time in the classroom. I really like the teacher I am working with, the kids seem great (although today we only had 16 out of the 21), and I like the whole environment of the school. It's a different philosophy than SCT was, which will take some getting used to, but it's going to be good for me to grow as an educator. (I know that sounds like BS but I do totally mean it)

I still do not own a car, (truck) because my loan officer is an official retard. ("Mentally handicapped person." or whatever.) I understand that her job can't be the easiest in the world, and I'm complicating it by being two time-zones away, but seriously. Don't call me at work and then hang up while my supervisor is getting me. I definitely yelled some obscenities into the ether in my car this afternoon.

So I've now rented this rental car for twice what I originally had intended to. I called the sales guy at the dealership and he never called me back, and now I'm wondering if God/The Universe is trying to tell me something (like "don't buy this truck, jack***").

I feel like I'm leaning heavily on the few people I know in Austin for moral/social support, but hey, I just got here, hang out with me. Soon I will know more than five people and feel better about life, but for now, I hope these people realize that it's either them or the television, and I only have four channels to choose from. 

That's it, it's way past my bedtime.