Memphis, Tennessee

After an excessively long moving process that began with me heaving my life into boxes sometime in late May, sending my stuff to storage in waves because of my small car, and finally getting everything into one city to load into a U-Haul, I made it to Memphis last Friday.  People told me it was a little nuts to try and make such a significant life change on Friday the 13th, but if I was going to have the assistance of my parents and brother, I had to work with their schedules.

The first few days seemed like I had actually absorbed some of that unluckiness. My left arm was out of commission because I had an unfavorable reaction to my 10-year tetanus shot (which still hasn't gone away, actually), which made hauling things from the truck through my front door kind of hard. My new apartment smells a little like old cat, and it's a little grungier and older than I anticipated...and I was absolutely horrified when I saw one of the infamous Memphis roaches run across my kitchen counter. But, apart from the mosquito bites, nothing has been intolerable. In fact, the more that I unpack and make this place my own, the more charming it seems.

I haven't done a whole lot yet since I've been here. I've visited Memphis several times as a tourist in the past, so there are a lot of things I've seen prior to moving here, but I'm looking forward to making some friends so that I can actually get out and do things without feeling like a lonely dork. xD While my family was still in town, we went to eat at Corky's (which is my favorite BBQ in Memphis so far), and took a trip out to Beale St. because my dad had never been there. We went to the Rum Boogie Cafe, which is the same age as me, and heard James Govan and the Boogie Blues Band...who are quite good.  I ordered a whiskey and coke, which would probably be more accurately described as a whiskey with a shot of coke. Needless to say, it was kind of tricky getting down the crowded spiral staircase afterward.

All the same, we enjoyed the music, did a little souvenir shopping (in which I bought a guitar shaped fly swatter that has proven tremendously useful), and headed back to my apartment because we were all exhausted.

Other than that excursion, the only times I have ventured out of the apartment have been to go to Target and to the grocery store. My grocery trip was kind of exciting. I got a little lost on the way to the grocery store, which is only funny because it is literally across the street and south 2 blocks from where I live. This happened because I am from Texas. For those of you who have never driven in Texas, it is very easy...because you can practically see for miles in any direction due to the sheer flatness of the land. Apparently, in Tennessee, they have these geographical oddities called "hills," that make it kind of tricky and dangerous to see around corners and cross streets when there is any traffic.

Though, once I got to the store, shopping was pretty ordinary. The guy who came over the intercom sounded exactly like the Sutton character from Memphis Beat, which made me "lol." The cashier told me I looked 19 (which comes 2 weeks after the Lenscrafters guy said I looked 16...at this rate I should look 21 by September), which was nice of him, and I went out to my car to discover a sticky note attached to my driver side window. Now, I just got my car back from the shop a day before I left Texas because someone had hit it while I was parked...and despite being fixed cosmetically, the tail light still doesn't work for some dumb reason. Seeing the sticky note from across the parking lot, all I could think was "Oh crap, are you kidding me?"...but when I peeled it off and read it, it really made my day.

The sticky note said:

"From one Red Raider to another: GO RAIDERS! Welcome to Memphis!"

It made me feel good that another Texan was in the grocery store at the same time as me. It made me feel a little less far away when I've been feeling pretty homesick. Don't get me wrong, the people of Memphis have been incredibly nice. I've been invited to a pool party (on the day I moved in so I couldn't go, though), AND to a family BBQ (from the cable lady) so far from people I'd only just met...and the only negative thing someone has said to me is when the Corky's waitress told me I need to buy a taser.

But mostly I've been unpacking and getting my place situated. I have my placement exams early this coming week at school, and then classes start on Saturday (o.O).

Thank you for reading my new blog. For those of you who were following my blog before, I was "wheekycavy" with the guinea pig slave blog...so don't be confused about who I am since everything changed. Hopefully my future posts will be a little more concise, and more interesting at the very least. :)