We are in. In our new house, our new home, and the boxes have been emptied of their haphazard contents (and are now flattened and mountained up in one of the rooms that's waiting for furniture). We are in.
And it feels every bit as wonderful as I knew it would feel. I wake up happy, eager to get up out of bed and to start the day. I feel as if I'm on holiday (clearly this is helped by the unemployment factor) and I walk from room to room, marveling that I live here and that there are more than three rooms to walk between.
Right now I write to you from my newly christened 'writing room' (this is actually the first thing I've written in it - Book 2 is waiting patiently to be re-started). Currently the room is pink. Pink on pink in fact, because the walls are pastel pink and the carpet is dusky rose. It's also fairly sparse - just a desk (our old kitchen table), a filing cabinet, an empty bookcase and a chair. This will change in time - I want, for my writing room (known to J as the office, but whatever), a jungle of house plants (I'm hoping the resulting oxygen will inspire and energise me) and a bird feeder on the window sill. I may even paint (or stick those wall decal things) branches and birds on the walls and clutter the shelves with trinkets and ornaments of inspiration. Books will spill from the book-case and pile high on the desk and facebook will be banished to another room.All of that, in time, but for now I'm happy just typing in this sparse pink room, looking out over our garden and watching sparrows and squirrels.
One more thing before I go... we seem to have been adopted by a wild rabbit. I see him regularly and yesterday when J's family were visiting it seemed like he was following us around - sitting on the front step when we looked at the front flower beds, nibbling on the grass at the back when we sat on the deck. Weirdly, he seems to have burrowed into a big planter at the front of the house and has disguised his burrow by pulling bits of plants over the hole. I hope against hope that he's a she and she's pregnant and about to give birth to baby bunnies in a plant pot. Operation rabbit stake-out will be commencing at dusk.
Showing posts with label happy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label happy. Show all posts
Progress Review
As I'm heading back to the UK today and as I'm looking for anything to do that isn't a) finishing packing, b)cleaning the kitchen floor or c) moving the mountain of wedding-present packaging out onto the curb, I thought I'd review one of the original to-do lists to see whether I have actually made progress in settling in here.
1. Get learners permit.
I put it off for as long as possible but eventually did achieve it.
2. Learn to drive.
This is happening. Slowly. I'm currently still recovering from attempting a hill start and then rolling backwards and almost hitting a car behind. Jeremy and I have so far only had one argument resulting from driving, where I was informed that I 'transform into a terrible person' behind the wheel and I have since tried very hard to remedy that.
3. Get social security number
Done, although I now have to go to the office and change my last name / get them to remove working restrictions etc etc.
4. Apply for /get Green Card.
Thank goodness this happened otherwise leaving today probably wouldn't be happening. Upon receiving my permanent resident status I cried out 'Yay, now I can leave'. Before that I'd been a prisoner of the immigration system.
5. Volunteer.
This is by far the best thing I've done. I'd like it even more if I got paid for it.
6. Learn French.
This was me thinking that with all my unemployed time I'd actually be motivated to put it to good use.
Hannah, meet Hannah...
...OK, this goal has been reviewed.
I did re-start my Rosetta Stone course, I just haven't got very far. I get frustrated having to answer stupid questions like "Is the boy eating an apple?" under a picture of a boy playing football and having to tell the computer "No, the boy is not eating an apple."
7. Move house.
I'm getting there. But this has been moved into the P.W. section of the year (Post Wedding)
8. Get a job.
See above, minus the 'I'm getting there' bit. Unemployment Rocks. (when you have a husband who transfers spending money into your account... which I think will start to have conditions attached P.W)
9. Make friends.
This is a work in progress. I certainly have people that were not in my life 6 months ago - I have people I can laugh with and get dinner with and probably confide in, should I have anything worth confiding - but it will take time for these friendships to really take root. In past experience, proper friendships have been born either out of living together or something dramatic involving hospitals and tears. I'm not going to be living with people any time soon so...
...hopefully there's more than one way to cement a friendship 'cause Manchester hospital UK is a long way from Boston.
10. Paint a picture.
See point 6. I think I got as far as drawing a chicken with oil pastels and I then accidentally cut it up while making a template for birthday bunting.
Progress Summary
"Overall Hannah has made good initial progress in settling into her new American life. She drags her feet when a task seems difficult or the results of said task involve effort, but eventually (after multiple motivation speeches from her mother and a few kicks up the bum from Jeremy) she does get her arse in gear. Perhaps most significant is that homesickness, while still present, has receded and on most days she feels happy in her life here. It will be interesting to see how homesick she feels when she returns from her upcoming visit to England. She is a little dubious about the approaching winter, and plans to weather this with red wellingtons, thermal underwear and a resistance to Jeremy's heat-saving tendencies. It is still early days in the emigre story, but the initial signs point to the move being a successful one."
Dammit now I've finished this I really do have to clean the kitchen floor.
1. Get learners permit.
I put it off for as long as possible but eventually did achieve it.
2. Learn to drive.
This is happening. Slowly. I'm currently still recovering from attempting a hill start and then rolling backwards and almost hitting a car behind. Jeremy and I have so far only had one argument resulting from driving, where I was informed that I 'transform into a terrible person' behind the wheel and I have since tried very hard to remedy that.
3. Get social security number
Done, although I now have to go to the office and change my last name / get them to remove working restrictions etc etc.
4. Apply for /get Green Card.
Thank goodness this happened otherwise leaving today probably wouldn't be happening. Upon receiving my permanent resident status I cried out 'Yay, now I can leave'. Before that I'd been a prisoner of the immigration system.
5. Volunteer.
This is by far the best thing I've done. I'd like it even more if I got paid for it.
6. Learn French.
This was me thinking that with all my unemployed time I'd actually be motivated to put it to good use.
Hannah, meet Hannah...
...OK, this goal has been reviewed.
I did re-start my Rosetta Stone course, I just haven't got very far. I get frustrated having to answer stupid questions like "Is the boy eating an apple?" under a picture of a boy playing football and having to tell the computer "No, the boy is not eating an apple."
7. Move house.
I'm getting there. But this has been moved into the P.W. section of the year (Post Wedding)
8. Get a job.
See above, minus the 'I'm getting there' bit. Unemployment Rocks. (when you have a husband who transfers spending money into your account... which I think will start to have conditions attached P.W)
9. Make friends.
This is a work in progress. I certainly have people that were not in my life 6 months ago - I have people I can laugh with and get dinner with and probably confide in, should I have anything worth confiding - but it will take time for these friendships to really take root. In past experience, proper friendships have been born either out of living together or something dramatic involving hospitals and tears. I'm not going to be living with people any time soon so...
...hopefully there's more than one way to cement a friendship 'cause Manchester hospital UK is a long way from Boston.
10. Paint a picture.
See point 6. I think I got as far as drawing a chicken with oil pastels and I then accidentally cut it up while making a template for birthday bunting.
Progress Summary
"Overall Hannah has made good initial progress in settling into her new American life. She drags her feet when a task seems difficult or the results of said task involve effort, but eventually (after multiple motivation speeches from her mother and a few kicks up the bum from Jeremy) she does get her arse in gear. Perhaps most significant is that homesickness, while still present, has receded and on most days she feels happy in her life here. It will be interesting to see how homesick she feels when she returns from her upcoming visit to England. She is a little dubious about the approaching winter, and plans to weather this with red wellingtons, thermal underwear and a resistance to Jeremy's heat-saving tendencies. It is still early days in the emigre story, but the initial signs point to the move being a successful one."
Dammit now I've finished this I really do have to clean the kitchen floor.
Misanthropy and Hope
Today, like a snail or a tortoise or ummm a hermit crab, or any other creature that carries its home with them, I lifted my bags and my trusty laptop and went on my way (only far less gracefully...yes, you heard me, I'm less graceful than a snail). My end goal was a borrowed bedroom in Kent (I'm currently typing this in a princess bed, having ousted my friend's 3 year old from her room), but first I had to go via work.
Getting to work from Sian and Marc's is usually a breeze. I roll out of couch, hop across the river and I'm there before you can say skinny-vanilla-latte. This morning however the world and its weather was against me. The wind threatened to throw me off Tower Bridge, I nearly got stabbed by more than one ridiculously enormous I'm-a-smug-sod-and-therefore-can-take-up-the-entire-pavement umbrella and the puddles left tide marks on my new boots.
It was grim, but at least everybody around me had the courtesy to look equally miserable. Everything was grey and correctly adhering to pathetic fallacy (although I don't know if it's real pathetic fallacy when you're miserable because of the weather and then the weather mirrors your misery?), and then I saw her. A merry optimist that had no business being in London at rush hour, with an umbrella that read 'Rain Makes the World Grow'. Ugh. I grabbed her umbrella and started bashing her over the head with it. Well, in my head I did anyway.
So it was with such thoughts of peace and goodwill that I finally waded into work.
Two coffees and an onion bagel in and my misanthropy was fading. The world always looks better with an onion bagel. A friend sent me a link to the BBC Personality Test which, being something of a wannabe psycho-analyst, I happily completed. In retrospect I'm not entirely certain it's not a government sponsored spying tool since it asks questions such as 'how much alcohol do you drink' and 'how many sexual partners have you had'? But either way I disregarded any Big Brother misgivings and filled it out like the rest of the sheep.
The test results give you a percentage of various personality traits and tell you (if you didn't already know) how satisfied you are with your life, what your life goals are and other useless-if-you-know-yourself bits of information. Having said that, my scores actually came as quite a surprise - especially when you consider that I nearly assaulted someone with an umbrella this morning for being a bit too positive - it turns out I'm officially (according to the BBC, and we all know you can trust the BBC) pretty happy. Apparently I have 94% Life Satisfaction, scored 82.5% Health and Wellbeing and I prioritise relationships (ok that wasn't surprising - I'm moving countries for one afterall).
While it surprised me on the basis of my exaggerated anger at miss rain-is-food this morning, I realised that when I cut through the crap - when I look past trudging through London in the rain, sleeping on couches and living out of suitcases, not being able to speak to Jeremy properly and stressing about visa post - there's actually a pretty calm, pretty happy Hannah inside.
That's not to say the outer crustiness of Hannah is going to become a little-miss-perky-pants any time soon (rain sucks, whether it makes the world grow or not), but it's good to know that there's an inner smile in there somewhere.
Getting to work from Sian and Marc's is usually a breeze. I roll out of couch, hop across the river and I'm there before you can say skinny-vanilla-latte. This morning however the world and its weather was against me. The wind threatened to throw me off Tower Bridge, I nearly got stabbed by more than one ridiculously enormous I'm-a-smug-sod-and-therefore-can-take-up-the-entire-pavement umbrella and the puddles left tide marks on my new boots.
It was grim, but at least everybody around me had the courtesy to look equally miserable. Everything was grey and correctly adhering to pathetic fallacy (although I don't know if it's real pathetic fallacy when you're miserable because of the weather and then the weather mirrors your misery?), and then I saw her. A merry optimist that had no business being in London at rush hour, with an umbrella that read 'Rain Makes the World Grow'. Ugh. I grabbed her umbrella and started bashing her over the head with it. Well, in my head I did anyway.
So it was with such thoughts of peace and goodwill that I finally waded into work.
Two coffees and an onion bagel in and my misanthropy was fading. The world always looks better with an onion bagel. A friend sent me a link to the BBC Personality Test which, being something of a wannabe psycho-analyst, I happily completed. In retrospect I'm not entirely certain it's not a government sponsored spying tool since it asks questions such as 'how much alcohol do you drink' and 'how many sexual partners have you had'? But either way I disregarded any Big Brother misgivings and filled it out like the rest of the sheep.
The test results give you a percentage of various personality traits and tell you (if you didn't already know) how satisfied you are with your life, what your life goals are and other useless-if-you-know-yourself bits of information. Having said that, my scores actually came as quite a surprise - especially when you consider that I nearly assaulted someone with an umbrella this morning for being a bit too positive - it turns out I'm officially (according to the BBC, and we all know you can trust the BBC) pretty happy. Apparently I have 94% Life Satisfaction, scored 82.5% Health and Wellbeing and I prioritise relationships (ok that wasn't surprising - I'm moving countries for one afterall).
While it surprised me on the basis of my exaggerated anger at miss rain-is-food this morning, I realised that when I cut through the crap - when I look past trudging through London in the rain, sleeping on couches and living out of suitcases, not being able to speak to Jeremy properly and stressing about visa post - there's actually a pretty calm, pretty happy Hannah inside.
That's not to say the outer crustiness of Hannah is going to become a little-miss-perky-pants any time soon (rain sucks, whether it makes the world grow or not), but it's good to know that there's an inner smile in there somewhere.
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