Moving Yet Again

Our life is so crazy and confusing, that we find ourselves explaining it to people multiple times a day and even we don’t really get what’s going on. But I’ll try to summarize. Billy has been waiting to start his 3^rd year of medical school, otherwise known as his clinical rotations (not residency), and we have been living in Utah until we found out where we were placed. Billy has been driving as a taxi during January for the Sundance Film Festival. I quit my job at Bella Lash too early because I thought we'd be moving in January. Then, when I found out we weren't moving until February, I got a job at the Sundance Film Festival, working in the box office. And I started my last semester of my accounting program a couple weeks ago. So, we are all over the place.

But the real news is, in December, we found out that we are moving to Chicago! We figured we loved safe, warm, and slow-paced Grenada so much, so why not move somewhere dangerous, freezing, and bustling? All kidding aside, we are pretty excited. Chicago was our #2 choice and we are at the perfect time in our lives to live in a city. We’ve been placed there for Billy’s clinical rotations for at least 6 months. Everyone please pray to the clinical placement gods that we can stay there longer, because I hate moving maybe even more than I hate Donald Trump.

            I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally be in our own place again. My in-laws have been so wonderful to let us crash at the compound for so long (we call it the compound because there are 9 Strongs living there at the moment).  At first, we were just going to stay there a couple of months, and then it gradually got extended month by month until February. Every in-law’s nightmare. We’ve been here since July with most of our stuff in storage and so I’m ecstatic to not live like a hermit anymore. And to explore a fun city that I’ve never been to. I am going to be needing a hella long list of places to eat and see while we are there, so please send me your recommendations now.

            We finally signed a lease on an apartment with only 10 days to go before we head out there. I used to complain about how Billy’s school only tells the students where we are going for clinicals about 3 weeks before the student needs to be there. But, we actually found out where we were going about 2 months early and we still left everything until the last minute.  But it’s still more fun to blame the school for everything.

We signed for our apartment without ever going there in person and now I'm worried that it smells like smoke or cat pee or something. We did a video tour and saw lots of pictures but I forgot that places can smell like crap. We had such good luck with our apartment in Grenada, and we bought a car from California this fall without ever seeing it either. We like to live on the edge that way, and somehow it keeps working out. Fingers crossed for a smell-free apartment!

            I’m embarrassed to admit that living on our own with our own furniture and belongings will be a first for us, and we’ve been married for 6 years. When we first got married, we lived in a furnished apartment for 4 months. Then we did summer sales in a furnished apartment in Minnesota. Then we moved in with my parents, then Billy’s parents, and then to a furnished apartment in Grenada. We haven’t needed our furniture or even some of our wedding presents until now.  I have no idea what we even own. We considered getting a furnished apartment in Chicago, since we're only guaranteed 6 months there, but it's high time we act like adults. So, this’ll be a real adventure for us. I'm all about adventure, but grown up stuff is not really my jam. Talk to me once we’re settled and I may concede that it was fun. But it’s too soon to tell at this point.