"Everything Happens for a Reason"

Everything happens for a reason.  And wouldn’t you know it- while I plopped down to write my first post about life in Miami, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day started playing on my Pandora account.  Signs from the universe abound!  For those of you unfamiliar with the song, I’ll post some of the lyrics here:

“Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.”

Okay, back to everything happening for a reason and how I find myself here.  In Florida.  In Miami, no less.  My husband (So weird to say that!  We just got hitched!) is a meteorologist.  And if he would, one day, like to be a gainfully employed meteorologist, he must get a Masters Degree.  As you know, the economy isn’t the best right now, so when the going gets tough, the tough get going to graduate school.  Personally, I think that’s a good plan, but it makes finding funding tricky.  My husband, J (I am going to keep his anonymity and this is how he appears in my cell phone because it is easier to search a single letter in my contact book…), applied to many, many schools: Hawaii, Washington, Utah, Colorado, Madison,  and Albany.  (Note: Miami is not on that list…)  A professor at Utah saw his application and encouraged him to apply to a school in Florida.  I said, “Nuh-uh.”  Well, I said more than, “Nuh-uh,”
 but you get the picture.  Anyways, J applied, and promptly got into the school with funding and tuition, a pretty sweet deal. 

I was really banking on the other schools, but as decision time drew near, schools accepted him without the much needed funding.  In the end, he accepted the position at the Miami school and shortly afterwards heard from Albany and Hawaii that he was accepted with money…

And that brings us to the present: two pasty Midwestern kids sweating in Miami.  Everything happens for a reason and I suppose the blog title Milwaukee_Madison_Albany just doesn’t have the same ring to it.  And had we gone to Hawaii we would be living in a tent on the beach because we wouldn’t be able to afford anything else and I wouldn’t have internet and there would be no blog to entertain you with.  See?  Everything happens for a reason.  (Grumble, grumble.)

Now, you, dear not-yet-existing reader, may be wondering why I started this blog.  To sum it up:

1.       To keep me sane,

2.       So my parents know I am still alive,

3.       So I can tell my parents, in one fell swoop, all my stories about Floridian-life without having to repeat myself,

4.       … right now that’s all I’ve got.

J and I got married on August 20^th.  On the night of August 21^st we jammed as much stuff in our cars as we could.  At the butt-crack of dawn on August 22^nd we left for Miami.  J drove with his dad, and our two “lovely” cats, in one car and made it to our new apartment in record time.  I drove down in the “party car” with a dear college friend.  We stopped at a Culver’s, we designated Chattanooga as our half-way point, got a great meal in the quaint downtown, and stayed in a nice hotel where we enjoyed full night’s sleep.  We got into the apartment at 11:30 on the 23^rd.  I spent my birthday, the 24^th, at Ikea.  While it’s not the most exciting way to spend your 23^rd birthday, there are worse things that could have happened.  Needless to say, it’s been a whirlwind (especially considering we just moved out of our Madison apartment on the 15^th of August!).

The first week in the apartment was spent with my college buddy (can girls be called “college buddies”?) putting Ikea furniture together, returning it when it didn’t work, hammer things into walls, moving the things we hammered into the walls when it didn’t look right, and driving around town trying not to get run over by Hummers and Land Rovers.  (When moving to a new place, I highly suggest bringing a design-y friend who can help you match pillow colors and will talk to you about furniture height and how the eye is drawn into the room.  If you would like, I can give you my friend’s contact info and she’ll help you design your new space and assemble your new furniture for a fee.)

I’m still trying to adjust to life in Miami.  I’m still trying to find a JOB in Miami.  I’m sure that both will take me some time.  However, I hope to be entertaining you with stories regarding the following:

1.       Driving, Drivers, and their Cars

2.       The Heat (not the basketball team)

3.       The Cost of Living

4.       The People I’ve Met (not that many)

5.       My Neighbors Birds/Other Floridian Flora and Fauna

In the meantime, I am off to hunt for jobs.  Wish me luck!