C'ville - I've arrived!

I have been in C'ville for about 2.5 days. Here's a brief summary of what has happened. I will try to update this every other day or so.....

Around 3:30pm on Tuesday afternoon my mother and I arrived in C'ville. After a chaotic, sleepless night and equally chaotic morning, I made the 7.5 hour trek with my mom to my new home. The drive was not too bad, minus some traffic hiccups around a bigger city.

Met my landlord and entered my new home. As soon as we entered, we were greeted by the smell of stale cigarette smoke. Awesome. But other than the stench, the house was clean. I soon realized that the house was missing a room - the 'dining room' was actually the 3rd bedroom in the advertisement. I also realized that I had forgotten to ask about a few essentials - a dishwasher and air conditioning. I made out on the latter - thankfully.

My mother and I have spent two days feverishly unpacking and I'm proud to say that there is not a single box left. Miraculously everything fit - minus the 3 boxes of barware/crystal that will stay boxed for the next move. It's a small house compared to where I was, but it is enough for me.

The days are hot (high 80s) and very, very humid. People keep their air on everyday, all day just to keep the thickness out of the air. It has stormed everyday, including the night we got here. On Tuesday night, we went to blow up the air mattress to find that it no longer worked. So we slept on the carpet with some blankets and sheets and two terrified cats who walked around crying all night. Pair that with a little snoring and a hint of a cold and that was my night. Needless to say there was a nap in my future the next day.

The town itself is SMALL...seems to be the trend around here. There are two main roads in town and the small university separates them. I live right off the one, conveniently located across the street from the grocery store and next to a Subway. Tuesday night seems to be biker night at Subway - the whole parking lot was filled with them. Bikers of all ages. It was the strangest thing.

I should also mention that C'ville is in a dry county. This means that I will need to drive 20 minutes to buy any type of alcohol. The good news is that the bigger restaurants are allowed to sell it. The restaurant scene in general is a little slim - there is a variety of fast food joints including a Sonic and four Mexican restaurants. Not sure why such a little town needs for Mexican restaurants, but it does. We tried the busiest one the other night and really enjoyed it. Their margaritas were a bit toxic, but the food was excellent.

Upon discovering that I did not have a washer or dryer, we headed to Lowe's to price them out. This was my first true encounter with the locals. Met a really nice man who gave me a map of C'ville, circled my place of work and where I was living. Then I met his associate who told us all about washer machines and how great the Whirlpool one was. How she was able to wash off grass stains from her farm and used the sanitize cycle to wash the blankets from her dogs false labor...too much information. Found out way too much about them, but they were very nice and just wanted to help. This is inline with the other locals that I have met - everyone wants to share their story with you. The whole story. The thirty minute story about washer machines. I have determined that you should always have snacks on you in case you run into a local. Bring enough to share - it could take awhile!

I met 1 of my neighbors the other day, Joe. He and his wife live across the street at the end with their giant PITBULL. He claims that his dog is very friendly, but the thing is huge and I wasn't about to take any changes, especially given I was covered in cat hair. I'm sure that I am being overly cautious, but I see no need to befriend this little dog. Pretty sure he would make a snack out of either of my critters should they get out of the house. But let's get back to Joe. Joe was standing in the middle of the street when my moving van arrived. He continued to stand there for the next three hours while the movers did their thing - this was when I went and introduced myself to him. He gave me the lowdown on all my neighbors on the street, including their age and marital status. Later that night, he drove his 4 wheeler down the street and later walked his dog, both times staring as my house as he walked passed. The next day he was chatting with garbage men for about 20 minutes, the four guys standing in the middle of the road STARING at my house. It would have been helpful if one of them would have knocked on the door and actually told me it was garbage day. Lesson learned - be as nosey as your neighbors. It's the only way to find out anything.

Today the neighbor across the street had a bonfire to burn his trash. I've seen many many bonfires in my day, but NOTHING like this. It got bigger after I took this photo with my phone through my window. I sent the pic to my dad who responded "Welcome to the country". Nice.










We also went grocery shopping today. Nothing too extraordinary happened there, except for this find. These were both in the grocery store and the WallyWorld. And it's not like they have a couple jars of them, but it's been a giant display in both places. So at this point, you may be asking yourself what on earth are they. Well, my friends, they are pickled balogna and better than that, they come in a variety of sizes from little mini weeny things to giant sausage-like pieces. YUMM-O!






So here it is Thursday night and it is thunderstorming...again. I can't see the farm past the cornfield across the street. The electricity has flickered and I'm suddenly wishing that I had planted the sunflowers seeds I bought early today. No worries, it will probably rain again tomorrow.