The Party's Over?

Yesterday was the first day when I felt like my honeymoon with DC was starting to wear off (yes, I know it's only been four days!). Nothing was really wrong, but it was starting to grate on me how much extra effort everything takes when you're new. We went to fill a prescription at CVS, after waiting for two days to hear back from my doctor in Iowa City because I don't have one here yet and because my insurance coverage was set to expire at midnight on the 31st, and after they finally called it in at 9:30pm our time, we raced to CVS before it closed only to find out that we were at the wrong one. Luckily, the right one was only a few blocks away (as opposed to the Pizza Hut incident), but it was frustrating and a culmination of how we can't really go anywhere here yet without pretty much making an afternoon or an evening of it. There's no "quick trip" out for anything...just various urban safaris which only sometimes end up yielding what we need. We were in a very comfortable routine (or rut, whatever you'd like to call it) in Iowa City; bulk peanut butter at the Co-op (the equivalent of which we have been unable to find here yet), freshly ground whole-wheat flour from HyVee, and the ability to run an errand at the drop of a hat; it's shaking us out of our complacency to have to refigure everything from what we eat to where we get it. We don't view that as a bad thing, but on a day when you've had to get a tetanus shot, you've got a blister from finally wearing something besides nursing shoes, and, OK, you kind of miss your mom and family and helping deliver babies too--it sometimes all adds up to feel, at least temporarily, like a bigger deal than it really is.

Today, however, was better. Just when I was really feeling the squeeze of not getting off work until 4:30, getting home hour or more after that (after riding a bus and then a train that's not always air-conditioned) , and feeling like I just had time for us to cook and eat dinner before I should be getting ready for bed about 9:30, I ended up getting off at NOON today because the afternoon session was on benefits, something which as an hourly nurse I don't qualify for. I had considered, as my brother would put it, "pretending somebody was paying me X dollars an hour to listen to something that doesn't apply to me," but the idea of actual FREE TIME with Matt proved to be too tempting and so I came home. We spent the hours gained exploring the library, which is of course extensive. After that we came home and made tamales, one of our very favorites which always makes us feel a little like we're honeymooning again, and then spent some time hanging pictures and other little odds and ends. Then it's off to bed early, because as my dad likes to say "it all starts up all over again at 6am."
And, as you can see, at least the grass is very green here.