Settling In

Ok, yes, things are going well. Here's sort of a list of what's been going on:

1. Still haven't made any friends, but I have talked to a number of people, and several men have yelled things to me on the street (My favorite, the most direct cat call I've ever received, a man pointed at me and said "You are a sexy lady." I'll take it.).

2. My friend Emily came down for the afternoon a few days ago and I got to show her around my apartment and we walked around downtown Fargo and it was lovely.

3. It's my absolute favorite kind of weather right now, it feels more like October than July (cool in the shade, hot in the sunlight). There's no pumpkin spice latte at the coffee shop I go to, so I went with a chai latte. I am positive I'll regret writing this, but I'm really looking forward to fall.

4. I'm in kind of a pleasant in-between place mentally, where if I pass someone on the street and they say "hi" to me, it's novel and charming, and if they ignore me it's reassuringly familiar.

5. I got a North Dakota license and plates yesterday. Patrick forbade me to post photos of either, but suffice it to say there's a bison on my license plate now, and that's awesome. I'm really really really a North Dakotan now. Ooh boy.

6. I'm going on vacation! Sort of. Tomorrow I'm driving down to Minneapolis and Northfield to see some friends, and on Tuesday I'm flying home for a week. Things are going well here, but it will be nice to be around familiar things and people.

7. In case you were in any doubt, I love hearing from you, friends. Your emails and texts have made this transition so much easier. I aspire to be a great pen pal -- if you want to give that a shot, let me know and I'll send you my address.