Movin’ On Up, To The East Side

Much of my blog posts in the last year have focused on my quest for a job and the things I did to pass the time after moving back home. Well, I’ve made some progress! I don’t have a job yet, but my friend/platonic husband/domestic partner got one and I made the move with him. It was sort of in the works for awhile and will most likely afford me more opportunities in my professional field. So I did it. It’s done!

So where did I move? Let’s play a guessing game! 1) It’s a decently sized-city…and because there are many of those in the contiguous 48 states I will say it’s 2) near a body of water. Seattle? No. New York City? Nope. San Francisco? Uhn-uh. Miami? Nein. You’re probably thinking...Oh God let it be at least Myrtle Beach or something to which I would say …Oh no! Much colder. Yes…I have moved to Cleveland. The Mistake on the Lake. But don’t you dare call it that. Considering the other city I wanted to move to has been known as Shittsburgh, I would say I have a penchant towards things that need fixed. Let’s hope that doesn’t end up including men and used cars. But I do love rust-belt cities and I’m very excited to live here. It’s no cosmopolitan place…but when you think about all the rats and garbage in NYC it’s not that perfect either.

One of the best things about my new ‘hood is that I can literally walk to a drug store, coffee shop, movie theater, Goodwill, and lots of awesome restaurants. Also if I’ve got five dollars burning a hole in my pocket there’s a Subway right around the corner. We also can see the rapid trains from our apartment door, so I finally live near really great public transit! There’s also a two story Target not far away…you should see how you get your cart to the second floor. An amazing feat of engineering.

One of my favorite things to do is learn a new city and if that didn’t involve actually moving my shit to a new one I would do it every few years. I like learning the best pizza places and bars for happy hour. I enjoy finding the local grocery stores and getting a new library card. And I also love driving around and figuring out the best way to get places so you can talk about it with other locals later. But that is proving to be a challenge for me because my ‘hood has some panic-inducing intersections to contend with. You think I’m a wuss? No no no…these intersections have like 5 streets coming together and complicated signage that is supposed to help but only makes me cry out in horror “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” So I usually just pray that I’m behind someone who knows that their doing…regardless if it’s the way I need to go. But I’m slowly figuring it out. Trial and error can be a fun game if you’re patient enough…which is a virtue I’m trying my best to attain.

Other fun things that have happened:
•We broke our built-in microwave the first night we were here. How? I dunno… but when they came to replace it this week they did so while I was sleeping and I had no idea the repair man was in my apartment. We essentially had an intruder and I continued to sleep. That bodes well for me I think.
•My roommate’s cat vomited on my bed…and I think I might be slightly allergic to him. It makes me very sad. :(
•We essentially painted our entire apartment the first week, and let me tell you, these are some INTENSE colors. But I love it. I’m so damn tired of painting though. I kept pitying my grandfather because he used to be a house painter for a living. How did you do it grandpa? How?
•There’s a pizza/pasta place by our apartment called Capitan Tony’s…and it’s owned by a middle-aged Asian man. The day we signed our lease my dad came with us and then we went to Capitan Tony’s for dinner…and my dad and “Capitan Tony” became great friends He even made us complimentary chicken wings to entice us back.
•The first grocery shopping trip we went on was to a store really close to the apartment. We took our sustainable reusable bags and went over…thoroughly intoxicated by the walkability of our new lives. It was all well and good until we bought waaaay too much stuff…including beer and milk. I really would have liked to see us walking home, from the perspective of an onlooker. We were walking really fast then adjusting the bags, then cursing because our arms were dying under the weight of canned goods. At one point we walked up to the rapid train tracks and I just kept walking to which my roommate said “Aren’t you going to look both ways!?” I replied “Well either the weight of these bags or the train is going to kill me…so just keep going!” It was a good lesson in buying less food more often.
•We got a speeding ticket already. I won’t say which of us…because it doesn’t matter. We just did. Then we saw the cop the next day at Walmart. He’s super hot.
•We’ve watched Jeopardy every night and kept score like we always told each other we’d do when we moved in together. A couple times we’ve been drunk…which always makes it more fun. And we’ve gotten in fights already about it. This week is the College Tournament of Champions, which automatically is very exciting because we will know more answers! It’s going to be a really fun week during the Teen and Kids Tournaments.

Well…that’s a good beginning to Cleveland I think. There will be many more stories to share and bars to report on. Thanks to those who have read my blog when my life was a little less interesting and independent. I’ll try to keep my thoughts coming and snarkier than ever.