HoosierGal goes home

Yep, I'm back home again in Indiana!

Kinda weird to think that my dad started his career in this town nearly 30 years ago, and here I am, doing the same thing. I was born here, and I gotta tell you, it's like I never left. I've already been claimed by the folks I work with as an Indiana girl. And I love practically everything about this place! Always gonna be a small-town girl...

So in case you hadn't heard, this is how my schedule went last month:
12/18. Completed training in Cleveland. Moved out of Cleveland and back to Michigan.
12/22. Went down to Indy to do the condo walk-through and some furniture shopping.
12/24. Came back to Midland - celebrated Christmas here.
12/28. Mom and I caravan down to Indy.
12/29. Closed on the condo, moved things in. I proceed to wrap half of my house in plastic sheeting, rags, and bubble wrap so that the furniture guys keep my brand-new hardwood floor new. Half of the new furniture movers came, bringing my dining set and bedroom furniture. Phone service guy came and messed up the phone line. We stay up until 2 AM moving and assembling things.
12/30. Cable guy came. Other half of the new furniture movers came, bringing my couch, loveseat, and chaise. Mom stays up until 3 AM cleaning, I stay up until 3 AM trying to fix the wireless router. (This is only after two chats with Cisco tech support and getting hit on by the lonely tech nerd... but that's another long story.)
12/31. Mom and I drive around town (including a trip to Plainfield) to buy my desk furniture and assemble it. We stay up until 3 AM moving and assembling things.
1/1. New Years. Mom and I continue to buy furniture and assemble things. We hang up my uncle's painting over the fireplace. We finish setting up the majority of my office. We stay up until 4 AM doing all this.
1/2. Mom goes back to Michigan. Builders come and fix what the phone guy messed up. I get swamped with work and do not breathe for the next few days.

So what's left? My blinds have been ordered and will be installed in a couple of weeks. I have yet to get my guest room furniture, but that'll come. There are still boxes of books that need to be unpacked. And my coffee tables are coming in soon. The list continues...

Even with the craziness, I am thrilled. Work has been insane but I prefer to jump right in instead of easing in. I love my new condo and its location is just fantastic. It's a new property so it's not even on Google maps yet! The people here have been fantastic, and best of all... THERE IS A MEIJER 5 MINUTES AWAY!! (I'm sorry, but you Cleveland people have no idea what a grocery store is until you go to Meijers. Perhaps that is why I never felt at home in Cleveland...)

I absolutely love the people here too - most of them are geniunely nice. And the nurses! They are soooo nice to their patients! None of the bickering and snapping that I encountered at CCF and UH. It was kind of a wake-up call for me - I've become such a nasty person since I moved to Cleveland, Philly, and DC for school and co-ops respectively that I've become pretty brash and aggressive, just to fit in with the lifestyles in those cities (especially Philly). I used to be such a sweet, gentle person when I was growing up in Midland... really! And now I have the opportunity to find that again.

The things I love best about Indy? Being able to find things - the streets are laid out in ways that makes sense. Having fantastic sushi restaurants a few miles away from vast farms and cornfields. Watching the sun stretch out over that wide-open, endless, blue Indiana sky. Having Indiana boys open doors for you and say "yes ma'am" to you. Listening to folks chat about the Colts and about their high school basketball teams. Seeing little kids wearing IU Hoosier apparel.

I've been all around the world, and I can tell you - there is no place like Indiana, folks. This is my home.