My Life as a Real Humon

I write to you all from the Ballston Panera. Read on to find out why!

Today will be the 3^rd full day that I’ve lived in my new apartment – my first apartment as a “real humon,” as Bryan would say. It’s a little weird to be living in an apartment that’s only 15 minutes away from my house. But don’t get me wrong. I am, for many reasons that I will not enumerate here, thrilled with my apartment. It’s just strange to be back in more or less the same area that I grew up in but not living in my house. I do like Ballston so far. I don’t know how familiar you all are with Ballston, but it’s almost like a mini DC. Lots of high-rise buildings, stores, and restaurants on every block. I’m also only a few blocks away from the Ballston Mall, which would be more exciting if the Ballston Mall weren’t sketchy and devoid of decent stores. I can walk to Starbucks in less than 5 minutes, though, and we also have a 24-hour IHOP right across the street from the Ballston metro. If you’re ever in need of a place to stay in northern VA, please let me know! I should warn you, however, that Dean R has already sort of claimed my couch for the remainder of the summer.

Anyway, my first few days here have been interesting, for lack of a better word. On Monday, after spending my first night at the apartment, I awoke with a dilemma. As I had done the bulk of my unpacking the previous night and we have yet to have our internet and cable set up (Bryan will sleep until 3pm whenever possible, so he of course was still asleep), I was at a loss in terms of having anything with which to occupy myself. I settled for taking advantage of one of the utilities that we did have at the time, water. Yes, I was so bored that I took an extra long shower, did two loads of laundry, and ran the dishwasher. Thankfully, Dean R saved me when he stopped by during his lunch hour. Then, Bryan and I decided to be productive in the afternoon and ran a bunch of errands, making stops at Ikea (where every item I bought aside from my dresser cost less than $2), Bed Bath & Beyond, Trader Joe’s (if you like wine, take note – we found some very decent bottles of wine, all of which were under $6), and the grocery store. We are both so tired of carrying loads of things to and from the elevator! I will be very glad when we are finally settled in. Michelle was supposed to come over and hang out with us that night, but she decided to, like, be a good child or something and spend time with her mom since she was leaving for China the next morning. So Bryan and I were on our own. We made our first meal in the apartment, drank a lot of good cheap wine, and had some quality roommate bonding. Until 5:30am. At least that’s when I passed out. Bryan apparently stayed up playing Zelda and didn’t get to bed until he realized that the sun was coming up.

Yesterday I tried stealing wireless from my neighbors to no avail. Apparently, the other residents of my building take their internet security seriously. I had one brief moment of hope when I discovered an unsecured network called ‘wahoowa.’ I got really excited and was so sure that I was finally going to be able to use the internet for the first time since Sunday – and on a network named wahoowa at that – but it was not to be. We are still internet-less and cable-less. To clarify, we have gone so long without setting up cable and internet because we didn’t know Comcast’s number, and, not having internet, it wasn’t like we could quickly look it up either. By the way, we now know that Comcast’s number is 1-800-COMCAST.

So I’ll end here for now. That was probably more mundane detail about my life than you’ve ever wanted to know, and my life is certainly not nearly as captivating as the travelogues we’ve been getting from Amar. Work starts on Monday for me, so maybe I’ll have something new to report then. And hopefully next time I’ll be able to write from my own apartment!