I was thinking today that it seems crazy that we've been here four months. In some ways, like in regards to my job, it feels like I've been here at least a year, but in other ways, like our social life, it feels like we just got here. I still miss everyone in Minneapolis a ton and am feeling a bit homesick. Nashville is getting better though, I am starting to really appreciate things about Nashville that don't happen in Minneapolis like being able to go out and almost always count on seeing just about the most amazing band you've ever seen in your life for about $5. Nashville definetely is music city. Some bands I've seen recently include Phil Hummer and Tecumpseh Two (http://www.philhummer.com/), Parachute Musical (http://www.myspace.com/parachutemusical), Howlies (http://www.myspace.com/thehowlies) and the Hotpipes (http://www.hotpipesmusic.com/). David, one of our good friends down here is the guitarist for the Hotpipes and actually will be playing in our wedding ceremony- what a nice guy! We've also hire the Phil Hummer band to play at our reception.
Talking about wedding plans, we been doing a lot of them lateley. It's amazing how fast everything adds up. This weekend we went out and bought my wedding dress, I am so excited, it's beautiful. I really feel incredibly lucky to have Darren and be able to plan such a wonderful wedding. Although we are doing it cheaply, I think we are including just about everything that is important to us, plus we're going on a fancy honeymoon! Doing all this of course takes saving lots of money. As of right now, we are in saving mode for the next six months. No extra expenses for us! Macaroni and Cheese and pasta will most likely be in our future!
Things are good all around, although I haven't met a ton of people here, the people I have met are really great. My job is going well, although I can't say it's stress free. I am learning a ton and picking up additional responsibilities all of the time. I am really hoping that I get hired on after my two years, this job is really an amazing opportunity. Eskind (the library I work at) really is the front runner as far a medical libraries go and I am so excited to be a part of it. I really am starting to feel like I am a part of something important, it's not just a job, it's really important to the future of medical information.
Things are good for Darren too. I think his job is going fairly well although I know he is often bored. It's the kind of job where he is either unbelievably busy or has nothing to do. Unfortunetely, his next really busy time will fall right over my birthday, hopefully we'll be able to do something!
I make no promises to write again really soon, but I will continue to write. Please write to me, I'd love to hear from my friends back in Minneapolis!
Monday, October 29, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Well I guess it's been a whole month since I posted, so much for weekly updates! I guess we've just kind of fallen into some what of normalcy- living in our routine. Things are good. My job is crazy, I feel like I must be taking up at least 10% more of my brain with medical knowledge! I have learned so much! I met with my director last week and she said that as long as I keep up my great work, they will keep me on for the second year of the fellowship (I was only guaranteed work for a year) and then possibly hire me on. I really hope it all works out because I really like the work and the people at the library. Even if I don't get hired on, it sounds like I will get to stay for another year, which in addition to more experience, also relieves some stress about moving again. Darren's job is going well, even though he has been working a lot lately. He just brought his first publication to press at his job, which is really nice looking and will look good in a portfolio.
Wedding plans are coming along. We've put a deposit down for our reception location at Estel Gallery in Nashville and have a great honeymoon planned! Darren's parents gave us a week of their timeshare points, so we get to go to a fancy resort in Mexico and just have to pay for the 'inclusive' aspect of the resort! Very exciting!
I'm taking a knitting class at school which is taking up a lot of my time, but I'll try and update more often.
Hope to see you all soon!
Wedding plans are coming along. We've put a deposit down for our reception location at Estel Gallery in Nashville and have a great honeymoon planned! Darren's parents gave us a week of their timeshare points, so we get to go to a fancy resort in Mexico and just have to pay for the 'inclusive' aspect of the resort! Very exciting!
I'm taking a knitting class at school which is taking up a lot of my time, but I'll try and update more often.
Hope to see you all soon!
Monday, August 13, 2007
Sorry I am so bad at updating. The last few weeks have been quite crazy. So yes, Darren and I got engaged! We went out for a fancy dinner, got ice cream and then went for a walk in the park. Nashville has an actual life size replica of the Parthenon, so we went there and played battleship (like what we did on one of our first dates). Darren then gave me a box with a compass in it engraved with our kareoke song, Jackson and asked me to marry him! It was so great. The next day, we went and picked out the ring. Pictures of the ring and the compass are http://www.flickr.com/photos/kittycar/ We aren't really sure what we are going to do for the wedding yet. Something small, either here or in New Orleans probably in April or May.
Other news- my job has been very busy lately. I am learning tons and tons and working a lot. I have basically gone through about three months training in three weeks! They are really pushing me a ton, which is good. I really want to stay on at least through the fellowship and hopefully get hired on. The job is really interesting and I appreciate the learning and growing atmosphere they provide. Also, everyone is soooo nice. Really much better than Hill, which was really pretty clickie. I started working on the desk this week and had a searching verficiation (basically a test of my skills). Things are exciting!
Those things are really keeping me busy now, but I am looking forward to hanging out with Terah (an Nashvillian I met in Minneapolis), who is back in Nashville. It will be nice to start to make friends. Tuesday Darren and I are going to the Rufus Wainwright and Neko Case concert at the Ryman Auditorium. I'm excited to see Neko Case in such a historic place.
More to come! I hope that some of you can come down and visit!
Carissa
Other news- my job has been very busy lately. I am learning tons and tons and working a lot. I have basically gone through about three months training in three weeks! They are really pushing me a ton, which is good. I really want to stay on at least through the fellowship and hopefully get hired on. The job is really interesting and I appreciate the learning and growing atmosphere they provide. Also, everyone is soooo nice. Really much better than Hill, which was really pretty clickie. I started working on the desk this week and had a searching verficiation (basically a test of my skills). Things are exciting!
Those things are really keeping me busy now, but I am looking forward to hanging out with Terah (an Nashvillian I met in Minneapolis), who is back in Nashville. It will be nice to start to make friends. Tuesday Darren and I are going to the Rufus Wainwright and Neko Case concert at the Ryman Auditorium. I'm excited to see Neko Case in such a historic place.
More to come! I hope that some of you can come down and visit!
Carissa
Monday, July 30, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Move to Nashville pt. 2
So I know I said I’d update sooner, but things have gotten busy now that I have a job! Let me just do a quick catch up from where I left off before.
The first week was mostly spent getting our place in order and getting our life in order (banking, DMV, etc.), but one event was the Fourth of July. We’d heard that Nashville was supposed to have some of the best fireworks in the country so although I’m not a huge fireworks fan, we attempted to ride our bikes downtown to watch them. Funny thing was that people were actually camped out as far up as our apartment! All along our rode from downtown to us there were thousands of people from all walks of live sitting in lawn chairs and BBQing in the streets! We rode our bikes up a few blocks and found a place to sit in the grass. The fireworks were AMAZING! (see pictures) I’ve seen quite a few fireworks, but nothing like this! In Minneapolis, I think there are a lot of little displays, but here there is one HUGE one and people come in from all over middle Tennessee. They last for almost 45 minutes, had a live orchestra and were all around impressive. The best thing- very little mosquitoes! I think that’s one of the best things about Nashville! I can sit outside for a few hours in the grass and only have a few bites. They are here, but not like Minneapolis. We don’t even have screens on our windows!
Now just about the best thing that has happened since we moved here…I bought a scooter!! After trying my hardest to ride my bike up huge Nashville hills, I decided that there was no way I was going to be able to ride my bike the three miles up hill to work. I bought a beautiful green Kymco People 150 scooter. I absolutely love it! (see pictures)
Later that week Claire came down to visit, which was good because on Thursday Darren had a job interview and pretty much got hired on the spot!! He is working for a country music radio industry publication doing graphic design. It really worked out well since he is now actually making more money (a little) and working only about 35 hours a week! Anyway, so Claire came down and kept me entertained my last week before I started my job. We didn’t do anything too exciting but we did do a little touristy stuff like go to the Hermitage (Andrew Jackson’s home)- nothing too memorable and the Belle Meade Plantation – much more interesting. We also went to Nashville Shores, the local water park. Unfortunately, the day we decided to go was the one day that wasn’t really quite warm enough. All week it was in the 90s and that day it was in the low 80s. We went on a few slides and laid in the sun, but it was really too cold to go swimming. Claire also came with me to the DMV to get my motorcycle license. Since the scooter was 150cc, I had to get a motorcycle license. I can’t say I was head of the class as far as the test, but hey, I passed and that’s all that matters!!! So now I am legally scooting about town.
After Claire left, Darren and I got together with our new friends Tom and Joe. They just moved here from Chicago so we have some mid-western friends to relate too. We met them the week before when there was “Lappy Hour” at a nearby bar. This entailed basically drinking with your dog! It was a lot of fun and Olive met lots of dogs including Tom and Joe’s dog Grover, an adorable Labradoodle.
After the weekend, I was headed to work! Two and a half weeks off was great, but I was really ready to get started on my real life in Nashville. Work has been great so far, everyone is really nice here and I am learning so much! I’ve really just been doing training so far, but I start working the reference desk next week, which is very exciting. I’m also learning a ton about medicine. I am going to be auditing an Anatomy & Physiology nursing class starting in August and I am doing a lot of medical terminology training. It is really exciting to talk to the librarians here about their jobs. They all seem to love it here because they are constantly being challenged and always learning more- my kind of job!
A great perk of working for a university is that I get all sorts of benefits, one being a free gym membership. The gym is really nice and so far never busy. I’m committing to loosing 15 lbs and going four days a week. So far it is pretty easy to get myself to go since I’m just down the block from the place. Wish me luck!!
So all in all, life is great and we really have started to get into our own routine down here. Nashville is a really great city with really nice people. I feel like everyone is so welcoming, which I think is a change from cold Minnesota. Additionally, the city is so diverse and I really enjoy meeting all sorts of people. It is definitely a different culture in some ways, but as long as you know that when they call their ice tea, “sweet tea,” they really mean an undrinkable pound of sugar, a northerner will do just fine. In all reality, you can choose to go to traditional southern style places, or you can go to very cosmopolitan places that they wouldn’t even have in Minneapolis. Nashville is definitely a very hip place, they’ve got a little of everything.
So that’s it so far, I’ve uploaded more pictures of our apartment and the city if you’re interested. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kittycar/
I’ll try to take more too. I am going to do my best to update this once a week, but it may end up being more like twice a month.
Miss you all!
Carissa
The first week was mostly spent getting our place in order and getting our life in order (banking, DMV, etc.), but one event was the Fourth of July. We’d heard that Nashville was supposed to have some of the best fireworks in the country so although I’m not a huge fireworks fan, we attempted to ride our bikes downtown to watch them. Funny thing was that people were actually camped out as far up as our apartment! All along our rode from downtown to us there were thousands of people from all walks of live sitting in lawn chairs and BBQing in the streets! We rode our bikes up a few blocks and found a place to sit in the grass. The fireworks were AMAZING! (see pictures) I’ve seen quite a few fireworks, but nothing like this! In Minneapolis, I think there are a lot of little displays, but here there is one HUGE one and people come in from all over middle Tennessee. They last for almost 45 minutes, had a live orchestra and were all around impressive. The best thing- very little mosquitoes! I think that’s one of the best things about Nashville! I can sit outside for a few hours in the grass and only have a few bites. They are here, but not like Minneapolis. We don’t even have screens on our windows!
Now just about the best thing that has happened since we moved here…I bought a scooter!! After trying my hardest to ride my bike up huge Nashville hills, I decided that there was no way I was going to be able to ride my bike the three miles up hill to work. I bought a beautiful green Kymco People 150 scooter. I absolutely love it! (see pictures)
Later that week Claire came down to visit, which was good because on Thursday Darren had a job interview and pretty much got hired on the spot!! He is working for a country music radio industry publication doing graphic design. It really worked out well since he is now actually making more money (a little) and working only about 35 hours a week! Anyway, so Claire came down and kept me entertained my last week before I started my job. We didn’t do anything too exciting but we did do a little touristy stuff like go to the Hermitage (Andrew Jackson’s home)- nothing too memorable and the Belle Meade Plantation – much more interesting. We also went to Nashville Shores, the local water park. Unfortunately, the day we decided to go was the one day that wasn’t really quite warm enough. All week it was in the 90s and that day it was in the low 80s. We went on a few slides and laid in the sun, but it was really too cold to go swimming. Claire also came with me to the DMV to get my motorcycle license. Since the scooter was 150cc, I had to get a motorcycle license. I can’t say I was head of the class as far as the test, but hey, I passed and that’s all that matters!!! So now I am legally scooting about town.
After Claire left, Darren and I got together with our new friends Tom and Joe. They just moved here from Chicago so we have some mid-western friends to relate too. We met them the week before when there was “Lappy Hour” at a nearby bar. This entailed basically drinking with your dog! It was a lot of fun and Olive met lots of dogs including Tom and Joe’s dog Grover, an adorable Labradoodle.
After the weekend, I was headed to work! Two and a half weeks off was great, but I was really ready to get started on my real life in Nashville. Work has been great so far, everyone is really nice here and I am learning so much! I’ve really just been doing training so far, but I start working the reference desk next week, which is very exciting. I’m also learning a ton about medicine. I am going to be auditing an Anatomy & Physiology nursing class starting in August and I am doing a lot of medical terminology training. It is really exciting to talk to the librarians here about their jobs. They all seem to love it here because they are constantly being challenged and always learning more- my kind of job!
A great perk of working for a university is that I get all sorts of benefits, one being a free gym membership. The gym is really nice and so far never busy. I’m committing to loosing 15 lbs and going four days a week. So far it is pretty easy to get myself to go since I’m just down the block from the place. Wish me luck!!
So all in all, life is great and we really have started to get into our own routine down here. Nashville is a really great city with really nice people. I feel like everyone is so welcoming, which I think is a change from cold Minnesota. Additionally, the city is so diverse and I really enjoy meeting all sorts of people. It is definitely a different culture in some ways, but as long as you know that when they call their ice tea, “sweet tea,” they really mean an undrinkable pound of sugar, a northerner will do just fine. In all reality, you can choose to go to traditional southern style places, or you can go to very cosmopolitan places that they wouldn’t even have in Minneapolis. Nashville is definitely a very hip place, they’ve got a little of everything.
So that’s it so far, I’ve uploaded more pictures of our apartment and the city if you’re interested. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kittycar/
I’ll try to take more too. I am going to do my best to update this once a week, but it may end up being more like twice a month.
Miss you all!
Carissa
Monday, July 16, 2007
the move
So I realize I am a little late to start this as I've already been here two weeks, but I'll recap.
Three weeks ago (which at this time feels like a lifetime ago) we were packing, cleaning and saying our good byes.
Our goodbye picnic was really nice and a lot of people showed up, although I was said that a few people did not come. The picnic was held at Minnehaha park where we did a lot of grilling and socializing. Both my family and Darren's sisters and kids were there as well as friends and some fellow librarians from school. It turned out to be a beautiful day weather wise and although we only had two picnic tables, we made due. After the picnic, I had originally thought I would go out with friends, but in all reality, I was exhausted. Claire was in town from Madison, so Claire and Darren and I went back home and drank some left over picnic beers.
We still had to work through Wednesday, so we tried to get as much as we could that weekend, but Thursday rolled around and we still had a ton to do. My dad came over (thank God!) and helped us pack the truck. I know that we never could have packed the truck so well without him! It took us several hours, but luckily it was one of the cooler days of the summer, so even though we had to run up and down stairs, we survived.
Friday, Darren and I got up early and had breakfast with Tony. This was nice. I hope Tony can hold it together, things are tough right now for him and I feel awful leaving him now. After Tony, we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. It pretty much sucked. We got done just in time to go out with some friends and say our final good byes. Terah, our new friend who lives in Nashville (but is in Minneapolis for the summer) came, Britt, Matt and Steve (which was really nice because they missed the picnic), Andy and Taylor and Erin and her roommate Dexa. Sadly, Erin and Dexa got there pretty late and we had to leave soon after because we had a "walk-through" scheduled with our landlord. I do miss everyone already... at least Terah will be here soon!
Saturday morning, we got up around 5:30 and were on the road by 7. The first day of driving was surprisingly not too bad. I had lots of books on tape and the cats slept the whole way, so we make it to Farmer City, IL by 4:30pm. We relaxed at motel and the animals adjusted pretty quickly. We got pizza, drank whisky and watched cable. It was a good break.
Sunday, we were back on the road, but this day we only had a six hour drive rather than eight, so it was pretty good. We hit some really bad traffic in Kentucky, but got there about 15 minutes before the scheduled movers, luckily. I figured we weren't going to want to unload our stuff after driving for two days, so I hired two movers to unload it for us, it was the best thing I ever thought of! They did it in about half the time it took us to load the truck and it was only $190, money well spent if you ask me!
That night, we decided we weren't even going to think about unpacking, so we decided to head out to the Three Crow Bar for food and drinks. So I put on this dress that I had recently bought. The zipper was really hard to zip so Darren had to force it up. So after sitting at the bar for about a half hour the zipper broke!!! There was nothing I could do, every time I moved more of my back was exposed to the world! I went to the bathroom to try to fix it, but i made it worse, the dress was totally unzipped. I ran out of the bathroom straight to the car! I couldn't even finish my drink! My first night in Nashville- so embarrasing. Well, I'm over it, but it was really funny! After I went home and changed, we went downtown, which is pretty much all tourist stuff, but, still fun. We went to this kareoke bar- holy crap, I have never heard such good kareoke. We aren't talking about one good singer, like at the VFW, but every single person. This city has way too many amazing singers, I will never do kareoke again. I have retired. I'm pretty sure one of the guys was a homeless guy who sounded like Billy Joel, really probably better than Bill Joel... crazy.
Ok, I am getting sick of writing this tonight, but I will update with part two tomorrow or later this week and bring you all (y'all) up to speed with the last two weeks living here. One exciting highlight- I got a super cute scooter and motorcyle license to go with it!
Photo documentation of everything is available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kittycar/sets/72157600862813777/
More to come, I promise!
Three weeks ago (which at this time feels like a lifetime ago) we were packing, cleaning and saying our good byes.
Our goodbye picnic was really nice and a lot of people showed up, although I was said that a few people did not come. The picnic was held at Minnehaha park where we did a lot of grilling and socializing. Both my family and Darren's sisters and kids were there as well as friends and some fellow librarians from school. It turned out to be a beautiful day weather wise and although we only had two picnic tables, we made due. After the picnic, I had originally thought I would go out with friends, but in all reality, I was exhausted. Claire was in town from Madison, so Claire and Darren and I went back home and drank some left over picnic beers.
We still had to work through Wednesday, so we tried to get as much as we could that weekend, but Thursday rolled around and we still had a ton to do. My dad came over (thank God!) and helped us pack the truck. I know that we never could have packed the truck so well without him! It took us several hours, but luckily it was one of the cooler days of the summer, so even though we had to run up and down stairs, we survived.
Friday, Darren and I got up early and had breakfast with Tony. This was nice. I hope Tony can hold it together, things are tough right now for him and I feel awful leaving him now. After Tony, we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. It pretty much sucked. We got done just in time to go out with some friends and say our final good byes. Terah, our new friend who lives in Nashville (but is in Minneapolis for the summer) came, Britt, Matt and Steve (which was really nice because they missed the picnic), Andy and Taylor and Erin and her roommate Dexa. Sadly, Erin and Dexa got there pretty late and we had to leave soon after because we had a "walk-through" scheduled with our landlord. I do miss everyone already... at least Terah will be here soon!
Saturday morning, we got up around 5:30 and were on the road by 7. The first day of driving was surprisingly not too bad. I had lots of books on tape and the cats slept the whole way, so we make it to Farmer City, IL by 4:30pm. We relaxed at motel and the animals adjusted pretty quickly. We got pizza, drank whisky and watched cable. It was a good break.
Sunday, we were back on the road, but this day we only had a six hour drive rather than eight, so it was pretty good. We hit some really bad traffic in Kentucky, but got there about 15 minutes before the scheduled movers, luckily. I figured we weren't going to want to unload our stuff after driving for two days, so I hired two movers to unload it for us, it was the best thing I ever thought of! They did it in about half the time it took us to load the truck and it was only $190, money well spent if you ask me!
That night, we decided we weren't even going to think about unpacking, so we decided to head out to the Three Crow Bar for food and drinks. So I put on this dress that I had recently bought. The zipper was really hard to zip so Darren had to force it up. So after sitting at the bar for about a half hour the zipper broke!!! There was nothing I could do, every time I moved more of my back was exposed to the world! I went to the bathroom to try to fix it, but i made it worse, the dress was totally unzipped. I ran out of the bathroom straight to the car! I couldn't even finish my drink! My first night in Nashville- so embarrasing. Well, I'm over it, but it was really funny! After I went home and changed, we went downtown, which is pretty much all tourist stuff, but, still fun. We went to this kareoke bar- holy crap, I have never heard such good kareoke. We aren't talking about one good singer, like at the VFW, but every single person. This city has way too many amazing singers, I will never do kareoke again. I have retired. I'm pretty sure one of the guys was a homeless guy who sounded like Billy Joel, really probably better than Bill Joel... crazy.
Ok, I am getting sick of writing this tonight, but I will update with part two tomorrow or later this week and bring you all (y'all) up to speed with the last two weeks living here. One exciting highlight- I got a super cute scooter and motorcyle license to go with it!
Photo documentation of everything is available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kittycar/sets/72157600862813777/
More to come, I promise!
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