Well, Nicole and I are here and sort of officially settled...we've started getting bills in the mail addressed to both of us with our new place of residence on them. Adjusting has been easy in some facets of life and difficult in others, but in general we're becoming quite comfortable here.
Nicole and I are both adjusting to our daily routines. Nicole is teaching now every day. She works as a 4th grade special ed teacher. Previous to Nicole taking the position, the children were supervised by various long-term subs which resulted in chaos and anarchy among the children. It was very similar to the society in that apocalyptic masterpiece the Road Warrior. However, day by day, sanity is returning and things are going more smoothly.
My adjustment was just about as difficult. I am currently taking two graduate courses in my program and have just barely begun my work as a research assistant in the wind tunnel on the NASA-Langely campus. It was a difficult adjustment because until this last week I didn't have a valid credential to get onto the base. Because of that, I spent most of my 20 scheduled hours a week hanging out at home trying to buy things on ebay and waiting. I should have anticipated the delay however, because my badge has been a cooperative effort of Old Dominion, NASA, and the Air Force.
Adjustment to the area has been nice though. The landscape is pretty. We have a lot of really nice trees right out our back door. We have actually had some great storms move through. We were participants in the wrath of tropical storm Hanna. With a name like tropical storm, I was expecting a lot more anger and fury, but it was much more reminiscent of an overcast windy day. Even though I was hoping to get out the 72 hour kit and cook our food on a fire built from the hardwood floorboards pulled up in our apartment, I am grateful it was mild. Our apartment is about 2000 feet from the water and only about 5 ft. above sea level. It is also of note that we don't currently own a boat.
We've been able to find quite a few fun things to do. Labor Day weekend we went and saw the National Symphony play and had a barbeque with some tasty bratwurst. Last week we went to an airshow. There were lots of planes and lots of exciting jet noise. This week we plan on going to the demolition derby at the VA state fair up in Richmond. We expect lots of cars and lots of unmuffled engine noise. That leaves me with a busy week; I've got to focus on growing out my mullet and wolverine style side burns before then.
Some loud planes I wish could fly.
Nicole at the airshow
Gorgeous Sunset in VA
A famous Cragun Brother's BBQ featuring Bratwurst
4 comments:
Good good good......
Sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun! When are you coming back to Utah to visit?!
You may have been disappointed with Tropical Storm Hannah, but we weren't. We've gone from earthquakes in China to tornadoes in the Midwest to worrying about hurricanes and tropical storms hitting the East coast. I'm not sure we're up to too much more! (By the way, we're having a beautiful, boring autumn in Cedar City, which is just fine with us.) It was fun hearing about work and school and the area from your perspective. Love ya, Matt! (Your other Mom & Dad)
Can you even grow sideburns?
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