The Eternal Optimist

In a flurry of ordering Sunday, I bought the remaining pieces I had been eyeing on Amazon to fill in my new apartment. Everything arrived in a very speedy fashion. So after a few grueling nights of assembling furniture, I’m calling the apartment “complete.” (I also purchased my window a/c unit today, which actually makes it complete because I wasn’t going to survive a D.C. summer without a/c.)

Today I did some grocery store visits. Haha. Actually, it’s kind of true. I drove to the Columbia Heights shopping area to get my a/c and stopped at the Giant grocery store there. Then, I took a stroll and had Mexican food on a sidewalk table for lunch. On the way back, I looped past Adams Morgan and confirmed the location of the Harris Teeter, which is my closest full-service grocery store. It’s fairly close, and I was overjoyed when I actually compared prices that it isn’t overly expensive. Plus, it has a free parking garage. I now have three grocery store discount cards, too, and I can take my pick of stores.

I took the route home through Meridian Hill Park, which was full of people having picnics and playing sports (even bocce) in the beautiful weather.

Now, I have to prepare for a rather exciting event tonight. Well, exciting by my standards. I’m going to a pre-party for White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The event itself is known as “nerd prom.” A bunch of journalists, a bunch of celebrities and Obama. (Basically news organizations buy tables and then invite celebs and members of Congress.) I, however, will not be at the dinner. But my company is hosting one of the pre-parties, so I do have an invitation to that. We’ll see if I spot anyone famous. (Identifying celebrities is not my strong suit.)

(If you want to see the full array of apartment pictures, you can see them here.)

I live half a block from this park, Meridian Hill. It is definitely a hill. The first half of the park is this tiered waterfall area with stepped pathways leading up. From the top of that (or from the street next to my apartment), you can see the top of the Washington Monument. (The park is a great place from which to view the Fourth of July fireworks.) The back half of the park is a flatter area with paths, benches and grassy areas.

I took a stroll through there in the nice weather after work this evening. I also explored a bit in the other direction, walking to Dupont Circle and back. I’m really loving my location.

Tonight, I organized my closets. The good news: Everything more or less fits! I’m lacking a tiny bit of space in the kitchen, which I hope to fix when I buy a shelf or cabinet for my microwave. Otherwise, almost everything is in its (general) place. Other than cookbooks (which are waiting for that extra shelf space) and half a box of picture frames (which are waiting for me to hang them), my boxes are empty. Woo-hoo!

I still have things to re-organize and a few more things to purchase before I’ll be “done,” but at least my place is easily livable now.

Because my closet space changed in my move, I pre-emptively bought a shoe rack for the door of my closet. It works perfectly and holds 36 pairs of shoes. (I promise this is pretty much every shoe I own, though it still sounds like a lot.)

Just one of the many storage solutions that have been perfect for my space.

I worked a half day today. I took the bus to get there, and I took the metro home. On my walk from the metro, I realized just how many temptations I have to pass by each night. Restaurants of every sort. Bars. Liquor stores. Even an ice cream store. (OK, I gave in and checked out a nice one that had a good beer and wine selection. I ended up with SummerBright from Breckenridge Brewery.)

I’m officially in my new place. Bookstore Movers moved my stuff today. (The poorly composed, blurry photo above is my place just after everything was moved in. STACKS of boxes!) I also got my Internet hooked up here and moved my cats in the afternoon. Then, I unpacked and broke down 35 boxes, which someone from Craigslist picked up tonight. So I’m even able to see parts of the floor now!

Everything is working out well so far. My furniture fit a little better than I thought it would, so that was nice. Tomorrow’s challenge will be setting up my TV/stereo/speakers/DVD/VCR. And I hope to get some groceries, too, before I go in for my half day of work.