One Year

 Thanks to my Instagram Story archive, it occurred to me that I've been living in Maryland now for one year. How did time go by so fast? I feel like I just got here. I still have unpacked boxes in the basement (actually...this is not surprising). Its been a weird year in a lot of ways, and not just because I moved...[gestures broadly to our COVID apocalyptic world with significantly less mailboxes]. So suffice to say, my time here hasn't been all that I'd hoped and dreamed quite yet. But I'll admit the first few months were pretty rad. Here's a list of some of the things I was originally excited to do here once we got settled:

- Visit the National Aquarium (awesome aquarium in Baltimore, also where I got engaged, awe)

- Drink alcohol in very tall glasses while rooting for my knight at Medieval Times (if you know you know).

- Go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC.

- Visit Hershey Park (my body is too old for cool theme park rides, I mostly just want to buy a 5ft tall Hershey Kiss).

- Take a weekend trip to New York and see a show.

Obviously, I didn't do any of those things. But I don't want my first year to sound like a total downer, so instead I'm going to talk about the things I did get to do. My top five things I've done/experiences since moving to Maryland!

1. I started turning my house into a home (still a work in progress). Moving into a much larger space with the freedom to do just about whatever I wanted with it was very exciting! But I quickly learned I have absolutely no idea how to decorate and arrange things, and then there's also this crazy thing called money that sometimes gets in the way. Everything I know came from Apartment Therapy articles about maximizing space in your 5 square foot apartment. But NOW I get to do totally WILD stuff like hang PICTURES on the WALLS. The downstairs bathroom has a 36x47 Lichtenstein print I bought at a garage sale - wild!!! I've always been into subtley themed rooms and have slowly been turning my home into a relaxing-artsy-spooky-tiki-paradise (I never said I had good taste, but it's mine and I'm thriving.) Oddly enough, my favorite room also happens to be one of the smallest - the library. Shortly after we arrived in Maryland I dragged Andrew and Madyson all across Anne Arundal County to pick up four book cases from four different Targets. They were only TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS, but each Target only had one of them in stock, so off we went. This is also when I learned not to go to the Annapolis Target ever again; it is hell on earth and whoever designed it and thought it was ok to make people haul furniture down two escalators and through a parking garage really needs to re-evaluate their choices. This weekend we also plan to buy paint! I've never painted my own walls before!!! Hoping I don't drip it everywhere, but no promises. 

2. My first Maryland Halloween. If you didn't already know, Halloween is my favorite holiday. Spooky Season starts September 1st and no one can tell me otherwise. So I was very excited for my first east coast Halloween season. I enjoyed getting lots of Halloween decorations (something I wasn't used to - there just wasn't enough room in our old place), even though most of them were from the Target dollar section. I was also excited to have trick-or-treaters for the first time. Obviously I've passed out candy before, but it had only been at my parents house since no one trick-or-treats at apartments. My plan was to make sure I had the good candy to pass out, to ensure people would want to come back the following year (in hindsight I see that this was creepy, and also pointless seeing as trick-or-treating was basically cancelled this year). I also learned that in the east coast a big fall thing is to get mums for the season. They are just as important as pumpkins, if not more so. I didn't get any last year, because honestly I just think it's weird, but I did this year. And before someone calls me out for not mentioning it, YES we also went to Markoffs Haunted Forest last year and NO I will not ever go back because I am a big baby and that's all I have to say about it!!!

3. The first snow of the season. I am not specifically saying snow in general, because honestly only the first one is exciting, especially when you've lived in California your entire life. The second snow was still a bit exciting but significantly less so. Every snow after that is just cold and wet. Wardrobe-wise I was also very unprepared for the snow, and I am not pleased to inform you that I never really remedied that. The Christmas season as a whole was also very fun, but I'm not going to write about that today because I already did extensively in my older posts.

4. Trying all the new food. Obviously this hasn't been happening as much recently, but we did a pretty good job making it count while we could. Our friend, Chris, introduced us to the Amish market, which is not only a market with bomb ass food to bring home, but there's also a restaurant inside! For weeks on end the three of us went there for breakfast almost every Thursday morning after work. Even now we still go pretty much every other week. Another great breakfast spot is Iron Rooster, it's a very cozy place and they make their own giant pop-tarts from scratch! So, so, so good. Double T diner is also very good - open 24 hours! A must-have when you work a weird schedule like we do. For my BIL's birthday we went to Old Ebbit Grill; Washington DC's oldest bar and supposedly where the presidents used to dine as it's around the corner from the White House. The steak was amazing and the experience was pretty cool! Also, in Maryland everyone is obsessed with the chicken from Royal Farms - a gas station!!! Which I thought was the funniest thing. I only recently got around to trying it; it's good, but not as good as Chez Soul. The food at Wawa (another gas station!!!) is also held in pretty high regard. This one I can actually get behind; I'm at Wawa more than I'm willing to admit. Not really a food place specifically, but I also found my new favorite store - Baltimore Coffee and Tea! So much good stuff. Oh, and because a lot of people have asked, yes, Maryland runs on Dunkin' Donuts. In my opinion they are just ok. The coffee isn't bad. The donuts are alright. But considering their advertising, their hours are not great. How is America supposed to run on Dunkin' if you close at 7pm? 

5. Our cats. Obviously I couldn't write this without mentioning my baby cats, Mulder and Scully! They're so sweet and silly; they make me smile every single day. They recently turned one! I love them and spoil them rotten.