A Very Disjointed Update

So, I live in Fargo, now. Things have been really up and down emotionally -- up, because Fargo is awesome, down mostly because I don't know a single person who lives less than three and a half hours away. The people I have had interactions with have been really nice so far, and the branch manager who helped set up my checking account yesterday was probably the most attractive person I've ever seen, so I feel ok about all that. Unlike DC, however, I haven't really had any random strangers come up and talk to me, with the exception of a few small children. I have this habit of, like, thinking about things too much though, and when I think too much about living and going to school in Fargo, I start panicking. If I get a PhD here, I'll be in Fargo until I'm about 29, which isn't old per se, but it feels late to pick up and move to a whole new place to get settled permanently. And I guess it's totally possible that I'll feel differently in a year from now, but as much as I like Fargo, I don't think I want to stay here forever. Ok, but that's enough of that, here's what's happened since I wrote last:

Mom and I drove up from Illinois to Fargo on Tuesday. It's an eleven hour drive, which is manageable but long. Our first stop was my new apartment. We picked up the keys from my landlord and got a tour of the place. There will be photos of the apartment furnished, honest, but it's still a bit of a work in progress at this point. It's a huge apartment, over 900 square feet with ten foot ceilings and more closet space than I know what to do with. I'm still getting it all figured out, but it's in a great spot, it's beautiful, and I'm sure it will be a good place to live for the next couple of years.

Mom and I stayed in a hotel a few blocks away on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday the movers came and dropped off all my stuff. We spent a few hours every day unpacking things, but I think it will still be a few days before everything is put away. We had lunch downtown and went to Target and the West Acres Mall to do some shopping. Several salespeople were astonished at the idea of someone moving from Washington DC to Fargo, which was both strangely gratifying and mildly depressing. It's unfair for me to think of myself as a pioneer or to characterize the people here as unsophisticated and provincial, because neither are true, but I've just moved from a city that's largely defined by its transience, at least by the people in my peer group, to a city with a population that basically spends their whole lives here, or at least in the vicinity. Gosh, I'm all over the place today. This is a topic for another post. More chronology:

Wednesday and Thursday night we had dinner at the only restaurant in town that really has vegan food, but to be fair, it's an awesome restaurant. We did a lot more shopping on Thursday. Basically, we shopped, ate and put things away, and I tried not to cry a lot. Boy did this entry fall apart. Ok, as soon as I have internet I'll write something a bit more focused.