Purple Popcorn and Laundry Cards

An entire week has passed... and it feels like a month.



Just after our last blog post, Jen and I made the trek to target on the bus - wearing the same clothes from the night before. Quite the adventure... we had to pick up an air mattress - since we had nothing to sleep on - and some other important supplies for the house. Again, we do not have a car. While shopping, it is easy to forget this minor detail, and we go into our normal habits putting everything into our cart. Brooms, mops, cleaning supplies, bath rugs, food... and the 40 lb air mattress. We schlepped our stuff to the bus, made a transfer, and had three people help us along the way. We were quite a sight...



Our white apartment walls were not nearly crazy enough for the two of us, so we decided to take on a task that always sounds easy enough, but leaves you cussing at walls. Painting.



Jen and I located the nearest (or so we thought) hardware store and picked out purple and green paint for our "popcorn walls". For those of you who are not familiar with this form of wall texturing, the popcorn finish was quite popular in the 60's and 70's. We decided that whoever thought this was a good idea... should be punished. After purchasing the 4 gallons of paint and all of the necessary supplies, we again had to figure out how we were going to get all of this home... 10 blocks away. Luckily, this nice couple stopped us and said "you two look pathetic, can we help you?" and then proceeded to carry our paint home for us. I'm not sure if it was because they were too nice, or we were too "pathetic"! Either way it saved us a little energy!



We had popcorn flying off the wall into our mouths, hair, clothes - everywhere. We were without furniture, so we did not have any form of elevation to reach the high corners of the room... no chairs, benches, nada. We found two drawers to stack on top of each other and carefully climb atop, then move them two feet, climb, move, climb and so on. Basically, painting a popcorn wall without a ladder was the worst idea we have ever had. After two days and inhaling an unhealthy amount of paint fumes, we finished the stupid walls and have a purple and green living room.



Our furniture arrived on Sunday morning and we were beyond excited. FINALLY, a bed, towels, pillows, our SHOES! We spent two days unpacking and getting settled in. It's amazing how much stuff we got rid of before our move... and yet, we still managed to pack our new apartment full.



We figured out how to do laundry. Neither of us has used a card operated machine... and let me tell you, it is not ideal. We feel like we're in college again... no jobs, staying out late, and spending all of our money on laundry cards. Trust me, this has completely motivated us even more to find jobs. In fact, I may start cold calling and begging for one.



We've made fantastic friends from all different circles. Our 1111 friends JD, Nathaniel and Zach have taken us to several fine establishments in the city (including purchasing shampoo from the local Jewel at 1am)- as have our new girlfriends Kelsey and Brianne. In fact, last night we were invited to dinner and a concert in Lincoln Park. We saw from our 18th floor window that it was raining, but thought "hey, we're from Seattle. This rain's got nothing on us!" We opened the main door to our building and sheets of rain were coming at us sideways and diagonal. No walking for us. We had a great time at the concert (check out Daphne Willis) and as we were ready to at least walk to the train stop, a big green van pulled up with a couple of members of the band in the front seats. They insisted on giving us a ride home.... so we hopped in the back and the band dropped us off at our place right after giving us a free CD. It was perfect.





Wow. This was a novel. We're having a great time and have truly enjoyed every second, and every new adventure so far. We can't wait until we have an entire MONTH behind us...



Please keep in touch and we'll keep posting!



xo



A&J