So as many of you know, the physical part of moving is by the easiest part of moving to a new place. It takes weeks to figure out your basic information and where to get a pizza, months to finally get your mail delivered to the right place the first time, and it can take years to feel that you've reached some level of connectedness in the community.
Well, while we may not be completely there yet...we're getting closer. The past couple weeks have been quiet in the sense of us taking very few and very small "adventures" (so small, we have no pictures to show of them). To me, this is a sign that we're starting to settle in a bit.
Two weekends ago we had the opportunity to go to a small social event that our small group from our church held. We all met out at a small state park, grilled out, and watched the few little kids that belonged to the group run around and blow bubbles at each other. It was a fantastically nondescript weekend.
This past weekend was my first duty weekend (which lasted from Wednesday afternoon through Sunday morning). Now I understand the reason we don't take a week at a time. I was up until 5:30 in the morning Friday night and up again for a good portion of Saturday night. It was family weekend, so I thought the parents might cool things down, but all they did was create more work for me. Every single maintenance issue you could imagine was brought up, along with having parents call the police every time they saw something they thought was a violation or was just plain wrong. Not to mention, Girls Gone Wild was filming about a ten-minute walk away from my area (I don't think a link to that site is necessary for you to get the picture).
On a good note, Liz and I drove around and checked out some of the smaller towns that satellite off of the main road into Carbondale. We found a park that we enjoyed walking around and plan to take more time to explore these little places.
As far as my job goes, I'm pretty excited about what I'm accomplishing. I've started (with the help of Ellen) a professional development series for our RA's that is completely optional. Our first session is in two weeks, but RA's have already started signing up for it. My supervisor's on board and is considering having me design a curriculum for an RA class. I don't know so much about that yet; we'll see. In addition to this, I've been assigned to help with RA recruitment and selection, RA training, and professional staff recruitment. I'll also be representing SIUC at GLACUHO this year.
Liz started her first day on the job at the specific bank branch she's working at today. When she went into the bank this morning, there were flowers, a card welcoming her, and donuts and juice. They also took her out to lunch! Liz was pleasantly surprised to find out that the people she is working with go to the same church as us and open about talking about religion. They actually said that they had been praying that the right person be hired! Knowing that we were also praying on this side that Liz find the right job, we're feeling pretty dang good about it.
Adventures to look forward to: A Midsummer's Night Dream, my sister's wedding, and a killer Halloween Party (to say the least). Next time we'll come up with some pictures, even if they're lame. Promise.
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