Saturday, September 12, 2009

Settling in

Its been about a month since we've moved in. We're slowly arranging the house to our liking. We indulged ourselves and bought a somewhat unnecessary patio set and bbq pit (somewhat unnecessary only in the fact that the weather is turning cooler a little earlier this year and I don't foresee too many more days this year where we can really enjoy those items, but they were on end-of-season clearance). We're hanging pictures and still trying to figure out our furniture arrangement. Also, doing home improvement projects. For example, we learned how a toilet works, and how to fix it when it doesn't work. Big things for us.

And we're learning the neighborhood too, and finding that we have to re-learn where the best things are and how to get there. We found the best liquor store pretty easily, but I had to look up where the drycleaner is, as well as the post office. We're still arguing about the best way to get to the grocery stores. These are all things that you take for granted that you know when you live in a neighborhood long enough.

In some ways, moving across town definitely feels like a big of a move for us as moving across the country. We had lived in the same zip code for 11 years, counting our college years. In fact, the familiarity of that neighborhood was probably why we ended up moving there when we came back to DC in 2002. It was just one less thing to deal with. Not saying that we didn't learn more about the neighborhood; it was just easier that way, and we were lucky to live in such a great place.