After our last 3 weeks of upheaval, I anticipated spending our first day here completely on the couch, zoned out. But then I was too excited to do stuff, so I never sat down until now.
We realized this morning that we needed a couple things -- like printer paper and batteries -- so we walked up to Rite-Aid a couple different times. The good news is that our house is 3 doors down from Rite-Aid. The bad news is that we have to pass Dunkin Donuts each time. Way too much temptation.
We also needed a few things like drinking glasses and a cutting board so I set out for the local Wal-Mart. Not only was there NO traffic whatsoever for the 2 miles to get there, but there were also plenty of parking spaces very close to the store, and it was not crowded at all! The first people we saw as we were walking in were this sweet family....
We're definitely not in NC anymore.
After a nice chat with the college student who was our cashier (he had to leave his puppy with his parents about an hour away because his new apartment doesn't allow pets, not even a goldfish if you can believe it), we headed over to the Sherwin-Williams store.
I inquired about some floor samples, which the nice young man (who commutes here from Cranberry, can't decide if he should just get an apartment here) quickly supplied for me. He told me I could check some out if I wanted to take them home to try them out. I responded that I would love to do that and asked him what information he needed from me.
"Oh, don't worry about it," he said. "Just bring them back when you're done with them." I told him I thought that was pretty unusual to just let people take things like that and he just said, "Oh, it's a small town. People are pretty friendly around here."
We also walked over to our new house a couple times today, to see the progress on our kitchen and dining room:
Guess they're not finished yet. ;)
During the total of 15 minutes that we were there, we were greeted by not one but 2 sets of neighbors! Our new next-door neighbors have 7 kids, ranging from 10 to 20-something, so I think we will have a lot in common. In fact, the woman quickly bonded with Jinna because she was adopted as a baby from South Korea! The husband in the other family we met works for the federal government -- underground below an old mine somewhere around here. Whaaaa? Who knew there was such a thing!
On our walks between the 2 houses we stopped to get some kombucha at the coffee shop and some chocolates at the homemade candy store... This town is not going to be good for my waistline.
At each shop that we went in everyone was so friendly and welcoming.
Then we walked over to lower campus so we could enjoy the nicer weather (very unusual 'round here we keep hearing). The boys flew their drone a few times today. Once it landed on the field house roof and Pete had to get them up there to rescue it. Then, about 47 seconds after I took this picture, the drone went out of range and flew up over the pine trees way in the distance. We had to run to chase it, eventually finding in the parking lot of "North" dorm, up on upper campus. Always an adventure.
Life in a small town sure seems to have some pretty great benefits. Looking forward to Day 2!
For our first dinner out on the town, we decided to go to Nonni's, an Italian restaurant just steps from our temporary home. Walking there and back as the snow was falling was half of the magic of the night, and the other half was the experience at Nonni's.
