Making a Home in Memphis

It was three weeks ago that I set out on this great adventure to Memphis, Tennessee. 

I had an idea what my life would look like here, but you didn't! You just knew that I was leaving my only home, leaving my only job, leaving my favorite grocery store and leaving my favorite workouts. 

I can give you a better glimpse into my new life in Memphis if you can have the patience to read. This post isn't all that I have to say, there's much more that you'll get about my infinite search for a career, how I sweat without ClassPass, what I've been cooking and friends I've made.

Living Together

I'm the stay-at-home girlfriend I always dreamed I could be. I get up in the morning and make my guy a healthy breakfast smoothie. When he rolls out of bed in the morning to put feet on the floor, I quickly take up the entire bed I'd been hogging all night anyway and fall back asleep. Thankfully he uses my hair dryer for a quick fifteen seconds in the morning, for his hair and to wake me up I assume. It gently wakes me and instantly I ask, "Smoothie?". "Yes, but you'll have to hurry because I'm late" he replies. Every morning. I race to the kitchen and blend the same tasty banana, strawberry, pineapple, spinach amazingness and steal a quick "smoothie tax" before handing over the red solo cup I assume he bought without smoothies in mind. 

The day is then spent however I want it. At the pool, exploring, job searching and napping have been some of my favorites, but I always make certain that the apartment is clean and dinner is hot and ready by the time Brian walks in the door. This is the part I'm sure he loves about coming home to me, especially since coming home used to mean immediately jumping on FaceTime and spending all night doing life on a phone or an iPad. 

Making a Home

The POD arrived Saturday morning and the contents of that container have occupied my life ever since! If you're planning a big cross-country move or just don't want to do the U-Haul thing, I'd recommend getting yourself a POD. You'll also need some super-parents like mine that made certain that everything in the container was safe, secure and easy to access on the other side. 

We impressed ourselves by getting everything into the apartment by ourselves with just one assist from a friend who lives nearby. We saved the unloading for 9pm and later to stay out of the Southern heat and to add an extra layer of difficulty with the dark sky and the mosquitos out for my blood. 

We were 100% out by Sunday night and the remaining task was to open up all of the cleverly packed boxes that held the possessions that made the moving cut. This unboxing has been my responsibility for the past three days and has included heavy furniture moving, volunteering which of his belongings could maybe go elsewhere and of course putting my lady-magic to work to make this apartment into a home. 

Having Fun

Three weeks isn't enough time to get acquainted with a city, but it's enough time to show each other how much fun we can have living together. Now that we've finished binge watching all five seasons of Game of Thrones together, we're going to have a lot more time for shenanigans. So far we've got into board games, late night swimming in the apartment pool, growler station "research", a massive run-around-screaming water fight inside the apartment, swinging at the park, Costco trips (my favorite date if you were wondering). 

Just last night he walked in the door from a long day to some island music and a pineapple filled with a delicious rum smoothie concoction. If only the weather wanted to cooperate rather than preparing for another lightning storm like we've had many days while I've been here. Fun plans coming up include seeing my cousin play at the Blues City Cafe, going to see the Memphis Redbirds play and root, root, root for the home team, check out the mega-playground I found in the middle of Shelby Farms Park, hang out with his super-awesome little sister for a week and continue making this apartment a home. Together. 

Thanks for reading if you made it this far, I'm loving this wonderful and exciting adventure!