Getting Around and Getting Along

I've been in Nashville six weeks now and still loving it. I am slowly making progress on making my apartment livable. I found a couple of furniture pieces at yard sales and did some creative purchases to come up with inexpensive options. For example, instead of a big dining table, I bought one of those personal folding tables and a decent looking folding chair, threw a tablecloth on the table and there you go--a mini dining space. I'm still on the lookout for a couple of other items that will help me avoid having to buy things you have to assemble. That's not one of my talents.

For a lot of folks who think of Minnesota, the standout is cold and snow. For me, besides the music here in Nashville, it's the traffic. I never thought I'd say this, but I almost started to miss the buses in the Twin Cities.

I just finished my first week at the job I'm doing and it's supposed to be a short distance. But, it's taken me 15-20 minutes each way during rush hour (and yes, people here say "that's not traffic" and I should be thankful). I've spent the first week trying to figure out the best way to get there and back. The commute home was interesting. One way I was stuck in the middle of an intersection twice on a red light because there are too many cars to always keep moving. Scary. Then I was forced onto the freeway on another route because two left turn only lanes appeared out of nowhere and I got stuck in one (if you aren't in the lane you need to be in out here, you're outta luck --there's no getting over). Even scarier for me. I got off the first exit I could and then spent 30 minutes bumper to bumper from the exit to the road leading to my street. Left turns are a crapshoot coming or going from my place or other areas where there's no turn arrow. So many times, I have to turn right and pick out a turnaround spot someplace when you can go left and spin around so you're heading right.

But, I'm learning. Believe it or not, my Geo is almost at it's second thousand miles since it got here (which would make it 17,000 miles).

Other than that, life here has been pretty seamless. The busyness I always had going on in MN is starting to happen here and the calendar's filling up. If I spend too much time reading the weekly listings of what's happening here, I can get overwhelmed. I have to remember not to book myself too much so I don't take time to rest.