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.

Christmas Eve at Enchant

Andrew, his family and I spent our Christmas Eve in Washington DC at a new holiday event called Enchant. "The World's Largest Christmas Maze and Market." We had a lot of fun! It was open from November 22nd through December 29th. There's also locations in Seattle and Florida, so definitely check it out next year if you're able.

It was located in the Nationals Park baseball field, so for some people being able to walk on the field was already cool enough (me, I don't do sports). The entire field is filled with fun and unique light displays set up as a maze for you to work your way through. There's also some sort of scavenger hunt for the kids, but I opted out of that, hard as it was to retrain myself. There was even an ice skating trail, if you'd rather skate your way through. It looked pretty dang festive; but the week before I attempted ice skating at the The Wharf and learned that twenty-eight year old Natalie CAN NOT ice skate, so I decided to pass on that portion of the night. Strange, how much easier it seemed when I was thirteen at an ice rink birthday party...

Not my photo! I nabbed this from the website.

Ice skating failures aside, the lights more than made up for it. Looking back, I wish I had taken more pictures to show off, but I was trying to do that whole "living in the moment," thing. So I guess the lack of pictures means I did that fairly well...except now I wish I had pictures? It's hard to find that happy medium. Anyway...it was really cool walking through all the lights, looking up at them towering over you. It was also a Christmas selfie nirvana. Trying not to bump into all the people taking pictures did get a little annoying, but I couldn't really blame them.

After you work your way through the maze, you can head up to the market. It was full of handcrafted goodies, and more importantly - warm food and drinks! They even had deep fried Oreo's, so I was definitely pleased. Near the food stands were lots of tables to sit at to enjoy your treats, while listening to a live band that was playing upbeat jazz renditions of Christmas songs.

Andrew made me wear earmuffs DON'T LAUGH AT ME or this blog is OVER (jk...maybe, best not to try, tbh)

I think everyone had a great time. Back in California my family has their own list of Christmas Eve traditions, which I was sad to be missing out on for the first time. Being out and having fun despite that really helped. Everyone is already talking about going next year, so maybe we just made a new Christmas Eve tradition. 

Our First Christmas Tree

(I hope it's not weird that I'm posting Christmas stuff after Christmas. I even have a post about what we did on Christmas Eve that I'll probably write tomorrow. My mom always says that the holidays aren't over and the decorations don't come down until Three Kings Day (January 6th), so by that logic, I think I'm ok. Anyway, today we're gonna talk about Christmas trees.)

This year I was really, really looking forward to getting a Christmas tree. A real Christmas tree. And by real, I don't even mean it has to be freshly cut and dripping with sap, I would have been fine with a fake tree, as long as it was a respectable tree size, and didn't look like, well, this: 

Because that's the tree we had used for the last five years. I bought it at Sears (RIP), and it would sit on our coffee table, because our tiny apartment just didn't have the space for anything bigger. Don't get me wrong, Charlie Brown Tree has it's own personal charm to it (and next year I'll probably put it up in addition to a big tree; this year it's taking a well earned break), but it's definitely not what comes to mind when you think of Christmas trees.

While it was a bit late in the game, we did finally get our tree. And yes, it's real (wiggles eyebrows suggestively). I love it so much! We were pretty concerned about how the kitties would react, but surprisingly, they seem to just like sitting and staring at it just as much as we do. They also like to sit under it in the dark...I don't have an explanation for that part, but it is cute.

I know the bulb ornaments aren't the most original. They're more of a placeholder until next time, when we hope to have a more exciting ornament collection. I added blue sheet/makeshift tree skirt as an homage to our Charlie Brown Tree (and to keep the cats away from the water in the base).

But to make things a bit more fun, we also added these skulls we had bought for Halloween and never used. The ornament hooks attached to them surprisingly well. You can also see the only other two ornaments we had (however, we were later gifted a Darth Vader ornament for Christmas, but these pictures were taken before that - thank you for Darth Vader, Paige, sorry he didn't make it into the pics!). The Yoda is from my mom (thanks, mom!).

We also hung up a bit of lights in the windows. We wanted them outside, obviously, but for some reason we can't find the freaking outlets outside, and we don't have a garage to plug them into, either. I mean, there has to be one somewhere, right? There has to be. The neighbors have one. But I've lost track of how many times we circled the house and couldn't find any. But we had already bought the lights, and dammit, I was gonna hang them somewhere.

No, the neighbors can't see them, but at least I can. 

Hi

I read a lot of blogs. Big blogs, small blogs, in-between blogs...and more than half of them will have an "about me" page, or something like that, and will include the sentence "I originally started this blog because I moved and wanted to keep in touch with my family and friends back home."  Today, it seems that person is me.

I guess I'll start by explaining my current life situation for anyone that doesn't know yet, or still doesn't understand what the heck my job actually is (that's ok, it took me awhile to figure out, too).

I live in Maryland. The summers are hot and humid, the winters are wet and cold. No, it hasn't snowed yet. The humidity is kinda gross but otherwise I'm ok with the weather. We live in a townhouse complex with a HOA that sends you letters when your grass is too long, but joke's on them because your grass can't get too long if it's dead! (In my defense, it was already on its way out when we got here...I'll deal with it later.) Apparently I have an accent here (but excuse me, I'M not the one that pronounces water as wooder).

I work overnights in a crisis center. A crisis center is a facility where individuals going through personal crises can obtain help or advice, and also serves as a clearinghouse for information and coordinates action during an emergency or disaster. I grabbed that from Google. A lot of the people that stay here are working through substance abuse or behavioral health issues. It's not a rehab center or a hospital. It's more like a place you can stay while you're figuring out your next move for treatment (which could be a rehab center, or hospital, or even just a family members house that you know is a safe space).

What the drive to work looks like (well, in the daytime - it doesn't look like that when I'm going in at 11pm hahah)

I guess the most exciting thing that's happened here so far is that we have cats now! We've wanted cats for years, but our landlord in California wouldn't allow it (even with a pet deposit; hella rude). They're four month old siblings that we found at the SPCA! Even though I've had other cats in the past, this is my first time having kittens. It's...a lot of work. But we're so happy to have them.

This one is Mulder. He's the larger of the two because he has a crazy appetite. He's also the bigger snuggler. He likes belly rubs!

Here is Scully. She's very loving but shows it more in playfulness than snuggles. She also keeps farting in Andrew's face, which we think is intentional because she runs away every time she does it.

Of course the next big thing coming up is Christmas. My first Christmas season away from home so it'll be different for sure, but I have my own little holiday bucket list that I'm excited to get started on! I'd like to get a regular sized Christmas tree for the first time, but I can't decide if I should because I'm sure the kitties will be all over it. We'll see. A lot of people have recommended Lights on the Bay, which is one of those parks you can drive through with all the holiday light displays, so I'd like to check that out. Later in the month we're seeing The Washington Chorus at The Kennedy Center, some candle light concert thing they do every year (honestly I'm not entirely sure what it is, Andrew's mom bought tickets for everyone and said it's really great hahah).

That's enough for now, I think. I ordered a handheld, cordless vacuum on black friday, and I'm gonna use it to get cat hair off the stairs, woohoo!