Anonymous.

Except for going to Minnesota for four years {hey Macalester!} I'd never moved to or lived in a city other than San Jose. College was pretty unique, though, in that I lived on campus all four years so the scope of my world as far as social interactions was fairly limited. I didn't venture off campus very often and Macalester is a small college so I saw a lot of the same people quite often. Very often, actually.

Keeping all that in mind it comes as no surprise, to me at least, that this is a Big Change for us to move to Washington, DC. I've been easing my way into life here and Michael has been as well but I anticipate that it will take at least a year for us to really get into the swing of things; experiencing all four seasons will allow us to get used to the cadence of our life here. Things will change a bit after these first few heady weeks. Things will change when {God willing!} I get a job. Things will change when Mike finishes the summer session and begins the fall semester. And thus it will continue. 

There is a window, though, that won't stay open for much longer. This is a window I'd never really experienced thanks to everything I mentioned in the first paragraph above. It's the limbo of one's first few days and weeks in a completely foreign environment. 

Prior to July 25 I had never lived anywhere even NEAR this place and now it's my home. Because of that, there is practically no one I know. When I go to Target I won't bump into my dad's neighbor. At the mall, I won't see any students {sad!}, I won't notice my aunt or uncle behind the wheel of their cars at an intersection. 

This is weird. 

For now. 

I'll get used to it, I know. At the same time, I'm kind of enjoying this freedom. I feel so un-beholden when out and about. It's not that I don't miss my family and friends and familiar places but it's so totally novel to me to not know a dang person, place, or thing. I feel as though I'm merely floating about and taking in everything. Maybe that's why I'm so exhausted at the end of each day, that or the excruciating recipe of heat and humidity that is a DC summer.

Like I said, though, I can already see this window starting to slide shut. I'm beginning to recognize a few people here and there. When I walk in the mornings I see some of the same people hanging out around the coffee shop. I know a few people {& their hounds!} from the dog park. I'm even able to drive to and from a few places without furiously studying directions and a map.

I guess this is what moving to a new place is like. And I like it.
xoxo, natty ♥