Moving to Austin

Honestly, I haven't written much in this blog lately because ... I love Texas!  This has been the most amazing move and the easiest adjustment I've ever had to a move ... with the possible exception of Colorado Springs.  It's easier to adjust when you go to school every day and get to hang out with people.  Then suddenly you're a grown-up and you have to (gasp!) coordinate your own social outings to make friends!!

So I guess I will start out with a quick summary of our moving experience:

We moved out shortly after the Fourth of July.  Mark's new company hired a moving company to move us, so we didn't have to do any of the packing or heavy lifting.  Woohoo!  The bad thing is that you never know who the moving company is going to hire, so we got a whole bunch of whiny guys in their mid-30's who moped and complained about *everything* the whole time they packed up our house, and I believe one of the guys was drunk.  He puked on our front lawn.  Lovely.

We made sure to be in Austin by the first day they said they "might" be here with our stuff, but of course they had contracting issues with the person who was supposed to drive our stuff out here and we ended up staying at a hotel for an extra week.  Luckily, it was a really nice extended stay hotel with a little kitchen, fridge, and dishwasher, (and free sketchy slow internet!) so it wasn't *too* bad!  Carmen and I spent most of the time playing down at the pool, where she tried telling all of the other kids she was 4.  (She had just turned 2 in May.  HAHA.)

Then we moved into our apartment, and the managers forgot (?) we had asked for a garage with a parking spot in front of it.  They also miscalculated our rent, so we had to bring in the papers from when we visited in May to show them what rent we had agreed to. -_-  We had a big pile of stuff in the middle of our dining room for another 2 weeks before someone moved out of their garage and we moved in.  It's actually a really sweet set-up ... our garage is in our building next to the stairs!  Getting everything together in this apartment involved a lot of waiting.  We scheduled Time-Warner Cable to set up our Internet, then the *day* before we were scheduled, they were like, "Just kidding, we overscheduled ourselves, we'll come give you Internet in two weeks!!"  (so we kind of got the garage and the Internet at the same time ... and by this point we had been in Austin for about 4 weeks.)

I think I have the best, friendliest ward in the UNIVERSE.  The first time we visited, we felt welcome.  The second time we visited (right after we moved in) so many people seemed to remember us.  It really meant a lot to me.  I love our Relief Society president and think she's really concerned about all the women in the ward.  Everyone is really friendly.  As soon as we moved in, someone got in touch with us and said, "Hey, a bunch of people get together with this guy named Donny on Tuesday nights at this pizza place called Double Dave's."  So we went there on our first Tuesday in Austin and made half a dozen insta-friends.  Then a bunch of people said, "Hey, we have a book club, we have a play group, we have this, we have that, want to get involved?"  And I was like HECK YES.  So I felt like I was immediately immersed in this active group of friends.  I just gave a few people my email list and suddenly I was in on all the stuff people were doing together. <3

So I joined a play group and a book club, which is pretty much all you need if you want to be able to get out and see people, right?  Play group is great because then I can get to know all the people who have kids Carmen's age and thereabouts, and book club is great because ... dude ... I LOVE BOOK CLUBS.  It's fun to read new books and get together and discuss them with people and get ideas for the next half-dozen books I need to check out from the library and read at the gym.

Speaking of gyms, I tried transferring my Gold's Gym membership to Austin.  Dear universe: Avoid Gold's Gym at all costs if you can.  I was with them for 5 years and I hate the company with a passion.  Every time I tried to do something a little different (put my gym membership on hold because we didn't have a car and I didn't want to walk 2 miles to the gym, or put an extension on my personal trainer sessions because I was pregnant and had a baby, or transfer my membership because WE MOVED TO AUSTIN ...) they would run me around and throw all sorts of "policies" at me that CLEARLY weren't in my contract.  In fact, one of my friends told me that Gold's Gym pretty much loses every time they get sued because their paperwork is so bad.

Anyway.  So I tried transferring my membership to Austin and I had 5 months or so left on my contract.  Gold's Gym Utah sent the new gym a check to pay for my membership and it was, like, $50 and they told me it was enough for a month and a half.  Then I would have to sign some new contract for an expensive crappy membership if I wanted to stay, but I could get a discount (oh joy!) if I only wanted to sign up for the one location.  Where the air conditioning doesn't work.  Right.  So I sat in the manager's office and cried because Utah was treating me so terribly ("we only gave you that much because we don't pay for hold time.  It's our policy."  WTF.)  Gold's Gym advertises that you can go to or transfer to *any* of their locations, but good luck going some place out of state.  They lie.  They're actually owned by different companies in each state, so you tell them you're a member and they say, "Actually, you're just a visitor, but we'll let you skate this first time.  Next time, you'll pay a visitor/day care/whatever fee." and then you just decide you're not going to work out at all during this vacation.  Anyway, the manager felt sorry for me and offered me a free membership until my Utah membership would've expired.

Then I started a quest to find a NEW gym.  One that wouldn't suck and one where I could just go to the gym, drop Carmen off at the day care, and read on the elliptical.  Instead of finding a cheap no-frills gym, though, we ended up finding one called Lifetime Fitness.  It has, like, three or four pools; a huge day care with a baby section, a toddler section, a computer lab, something that looks like a McDonald's playland, a basketball court, and an outdoor play area (and you get TWO HOURS of day care!!); several places where you can take fitness classes and yoga; a health spa; a cafe; gorgeous locker rooms ... It's like a gym, but gold-plated.  I want to go.  Carmen loves it.  After I work out, I sit on the couch and read, cross-stitch, or watch TV until my 2 hours is up.  IT IS AMAZING.  It is so worth what we pay for it.  It is better than preschool.  Except maybe for the fact that I have to be at the gym while Carmen is in the day care.

I also became a member at the Austin children's museum.  They have a train, a cow, pigs on parachutes (so they can FLY, DUH!), stuff to build, golf balls to drop down ramps, story time, bubbles, fish ... The membership pays for itself (with just 2 people going on a "4-person" membership) after about 6 visits.  And I can bring friends for free- they don't have to be family!  So I get to bribe my friends to come on Children's Museum dates with me. ;)

So yeah.  I pretty much love everything about my life here.  I love my friends and what I have the opportunity to do and I haven't blogged because I've been too busy having fun and being pregnant and having a newborn.  I've already written too much; I'll start another entry for later.  Some time I'll even get around to pictures. =p

Creatures of Habit

In high school, my AP Psychology teacher didn't assign seats.  After the first few weeks of school, we all pretty much sat in the same seats anyway, because we are creatures of habit.  We like familiarity.  There were a few times during the year when either I or my best friend, Ross, would try to sit somewhere else, and we thought it was exceedingly hilarious when another student would get indignant and go, "Hey, you're in MY seat!"  We were tempted to respond with something cheeky, like, "There are no assigned seats, remember?" ... but we were unpopular enough as it is, and returned to "our" seats if someone didn't like us mixing things up. =p

Anyway, I've noticed that I've quickly formed some habits after moving to Austin.  My friend Jocelyn started working in the day care at the local Gold's Gym so I gave her a ride home yesterday.  I went on autopilot and started heading back to my place instead of her apartment.  It's amazing how quickly habits form: We arrived in Austin in the afternoon of July 8, our stuff got here July 19, and we got our garage on August 1.  We finally got Internet at the end of July.  ("I see you scheduled for this day because we said it was available, but we actually can't do it for another 2 weeks."  ... yeah, I know how it goes. -_-)  So to me, it feels like life here officially began about two weeks ago.  Three and a half, if you start from when our stuff got here and I actually met a few neighbors.

Do you go to the gym?  Have you developed workout habits there?  Do you feel possessive of some of the cardio machines there?  Is there one you always work out on, and when you get to the gym and someone else is working out on it, you feel kind of awkward, like, "Oh, great, now I have to go work out on a different machine.  One I don't love so much."  And maybe ... or maybe not ... you can't decide whether you should take the machine right next to yours, or space yourself away from the stranger who is unknowingly using your machine?

Okay, so I think too much when I work out.

In American Fork, there was a particular elliptical machine I always used - the one on the end.  I don't like the treadmill because my knees get achy.  Here in Austin, I quickly found a machine I've used just about every time I've worked out.  It's the fourth one in, because it's exactly where the fan on the wall hits my head and helps me cool down while working out.  It's also right in front of the TV, so I get to .... watch .... ESPN .... because ........ Well, no, there's nothing great about the TV my machine is in front of.  I just read books anyway. ;)

Do you guys have funny habits about things you use in public places, too?  Like is there are particular chair at the pool you always leave your stuff by?  Is there a machine at the gym that's "yours" too?  Or am I just crazy?

I wouldn't mind just being crazy. ;)