Working, moving, and eating

It’s been an exhausting, busy week. I started work last Friday and proceeded to work 8 days in a row. We also moved in on Tuesday (and, yes, I did work while moving, but I got to leave 2 hours early). Working and having our own place is really making the move seem to have been accomplished.

Speaking of moving accomplishments, we also now have a local bank! I’m irrationally excited about it. Opening accounts took forever because the woman we were talking to was super talkative. When we received the “Welcome to our bank!” form letter, the lady we’d spoken to had written a personal note to each of us. A few days later she emails me to make sure that I had figured out how to do the change of address and sign up for e-statements as we’d discussed. I’m utterly amazed at the customer service. Who knew banks could actually have good customer service?

I’ve also been given a raise at work already. Since I work weekdays, and we’re managed from Manhattan, I just naturally became the go-to person for dealing with local things. I was moved to being in charge of ordering, receiving deliveries, and doing inventory. It’s exciting to have more responsibilities because my days usually go something like this:

Get to work. Make sure there’s enough change in the drawer, if not, go to the bank and get some. Start the oven and warmers. Bake cookies. Count the cash in the drawer. Put down the stools. Take the cookies out of the oven. Put more in. Open store. (End first hour.)

Happily sell cookies to the after-lunch crowd.

Sit.

Sit.

Sit.

Laugh to myself because there’s a car outside with a mattress on it that’s being held onto the car by four college boys holding onto the mattress handles.

Sit.

Sell a few cookies!

Sit.

Answer the phone.

Sell a few more cookies. (End next four-five hours)

Bake cookies. Sell cookies to the pre-dinner crowd. Remove cookies from oven. Sell more cookies. Do closing paperwork. Count cash in the drawer. Sell more cookies. Deposit the profit at the bank. (End last one-two hours)

Our apartment is treating us reasonably well. We left a number of essentials in Iowa with the understanding that they’ll get driven out here soon. We’re sleeping on two borrowing camping mats with borrowed sheets. At least we brought blankets. Also, a few vital kitchen boxes are missing, such as the one containing all of our dishes. We purchased plastic plates, and were gifted extra bowls by the woman who lives upstairs—so we have three bowls now! It’s pretty hilarious to have no furniture, no dishes, and lilac walls. The smoke detectors have the unfortunate habit of going off for no apparent reason (making pasta? taking a bath?) but hopefully they'll figure themselves out soon.

Yesterday we walked to the Brooktondale farmers’ market, which is two buildings away. It was small, but all the venders were super happy to chat. We learned about the Brooktondale Apple Festival in later October. It’s apparently a big deal and has tons of pies and cider and fresh fruit. We’re definitely planning to make it to that.

We bought a purple bell pepper for 15 cents and a beautiful onion for 2 cents. Can’t beat those prices! I suspect we’re supposed to get produce from them in bulk and make pickles or do some canning? We also tried samples of raw honey (basswood, orange blossom, and fall wildflowers), and homemade jams. We went home with their hottest pepper jelly. After trying it, the hot and medium were just kind of bland. It’s mostly going to be used in cooking, but there may be some crackers and cream cheese broken out with them.

And now I must go eat a pie made from locally-grown peaches (not made by me, sadly).

Dariana