Happy 1-week anniversary to us!

As of yesterday, we celebrated the 1-week anniversary of our (okay, Matt's) hellish drive through the rain-soaked countryside of Iowa/ Illinois/ Indiana/ Ohio/ Pennsylvania/ Virginia/ Maryland to arrive here at 3:00 last Saturday morning. As with the tw0-month marker after our wedding, which came on Thursday, we can't believe it's only been that long. Maybe everybody ends up feeling that way, but for us, the net effect of leaving everything we knew and starting over completely fresh was that it somewhat reset our memories and sort of makes us feel like we've always been here. Matt has continued to make improvements to the apartment, the cats are settling in, and we're slowly learning our way around.

Our goal, for practical, financial, and environmental reasons, is to rely as much on public transit as possible. Our truest motivation comes in the form of the endless traffic jams and wrong turns we wind up in when we do step out in the Neon.

One of these was a trip to Best Buy on Friday to take our TV in for servicing. We just bought it last year, our very first purchase together after we realized that a) this was starting to really feel like a long-term thing; and b) neither one of us brought one with us to the relationship. We ended up going with a solid, mid-range Toshiba that, at 24", seemed plenty big to us. Well, fast-forward a year to the time when we realize that it is way too damn big for us. Prompted to look around due to a service issue we had in Iowa which left us without the TV for almost 3 weeks and which came back unfixed, as well as by the freedom we've felt the past two days by not having it on the kitchen table (truly the only place it will even sort of fit here) while it's in the shop, we've felt forced to reconsider our options. One option we've been exercising is to try to persuade Best Buy into circumnavigating their "no lemon policy" (in which a replacement is offered after the TV is serviced a total of FOUR TIMES) and instead accepting that a problem which was not diagnosed and fixed the first time is unlikely to be diagnosed and fixed the second (or third, or fourth) time, and thus it would really be a much wiser move for them to stop shipping and fixing this TV on their dime (thanks to the service plan) and instead "allow" us the favor of dropping some more money on the difference between this TV's current replacement value and a comparable (admittedly smaller, but that's the point) flat-panel model. This was rejected at the store and through customer service, but we currently have an "escalation" pleading underway with the corporate office and the representative there seems to feel like our chances are actually okay. Barring that, or if we were unable to get a flat-panel TV for a slim margin above what our old one will cash in for (although it looks like we can; the issue is just whether they'll trade in the old one), I think we've decided we'll probably just go without. It wouldn't really be that big a step since we've never had cable or even basic network service together; literally the only function our TV has ever provided is for watching movies. We feel pretty confident here that we could find other entertainment options that would fill the reasonably minimal place in our lives that this occupies, and in reality it would probably be good for us. Without it, we've already made it to places like the Eastern Market and to hear the US Army Band on the steps of the Capitol (see right). We go out for crepes (see above)! We probably would have made it to those places even if we did have a working TV, but this would really force us to be creative, and there's something in us that likes the sound of that. So we'll keep you posted.

Other than that, here's what $22 worth of produce looks like at the Eastern Market, which is up and running at its temporary location; something we're very happy about, though sad that the old, historic one burned shortly before we came to town. What it will look like in the coming weeks: pesto (!), tomato sauce, salsa, zucchini bread, salads, and lots more. We were in heaven. Also in the works this week are cookies, banana bread, and pizza (Matt has already made the crusts and sauce). Our freezer has looked a little sad and bare since we moved, and we're out to fix that.

Other than that, I continue to dash my way through a quick orientation at the hospital. I've told people it's like wandering through a completely foreign landscape, and then every so often you spot somebody you think you know. The occasional familiarity, in this case, comes from the actual nursing/medical part of the job: diagnoses, treatments, interventions. And, of course, patients, which are remarkably similar from place to place (although I will admit I've never had anybody's husband in Iowa tell me that my "accent" reminds them of the movie Fargo! On closer questioning, he did backpedal a little and say "Well, or maybe like my brother-in-law, who comes from Cedar Rapids." I didn't realize there is a Cedar Rapidian dialect that's recognizable coast-to-coast, but evidently there is, and evidently I've got it). The rest of the "landscape" is made up of unfamiliar people, practices, systems, abbreviations (as I found myself trapped in the nursery with 10 screaming babies who each had a paper towel in their crib marked "OD," I concluded that this couldn't possibly be some kind of baby rehab unit, and so I asked...it stands for "on demand," and meant we needed to shuttle them out for feedings as they woke up), etc. In order to survive, you have to prioritize (what do my patients really need? versus shutting down and panicking about the things you don't know) although various inspecting and accrediting bodies, with their insistence on one-size-fits-all solutions which have in fact led organizations toward creating their own increasingly unique and idiosyncratic loopholes and workarounds, place as high a priority on things like how, specifically, you document that you gave a Tyenol, as they do on the fact that 10 of your 12 patients are in pain. This makes things harder, I think.

Finally, next weekend we're hoping to get to Philadelphia (about two hours away) to see somebody I've been in love with for a long time. King Tut's mummy is on the last stop of its US tour and we would LOVE to get there to see him. We'll let you know how that goes!

Oh, and I cut (or rather had cut) about six inches off my hair...not the radical Michelle Williams-esque transformation I'm still contemplating, but a first step. When I haven't just woken up after having it twisted wet into a bun all evening, maybe I'll post a picture. I'm sure the results will be underwhelming to most, but it does feel like a big change to me.