It's a learning experience!

It was quite the exciting day today here in Virginia. I got up this morning to the sound of the garbage trucks emptying the dumpsters in the alley behind my apartment. Seeing as this is the second day in a row that they have been out there at 8:30am, I fear that this is going to be a daily occurrence. I guess we'll comfirm that tomorrow morning.

The overall plan for today was to finish unpacking. Yesterday I had pretty much finished unpacking everything for my room, the kitchen and the bathroom, but the living room remained a complete and utter disaster. So the morning was spent unpacking boxes and then repacking** other boxes.

Here's what I learned today:

• Virginia has bugs. I didn't really think about bugs and spiders because in LA I didn't have any of them. I think we had a cricket in our kitchen a couple of times but that was pretty much the extent of it. So when I walked into the kitchen this morning and saw a small roach run across the linoleum, I couldn't help but scream. Then I realized that the scream which would normally make a roommate appear is completely ineffective at arousing assistance when you live alone. So I sucked it up, got some paper towel, and then proceeded to smash the bug with my own two hands. Pat on the back for me. I then promptly went to Target to buy roach bait and spray roach/ant killer. Take that suckers!
• Dishwashers are not always efficient.When I packed my dishes for the move I wrapped them in newspaper for protection. So before using them in my new apartment, I figured I would just run them through the dishwasher. Being a girl that has never had a dishwasher in her apartment before, I was really excited about being able to do other things while this machine was cleaning my dishes for me. Little did I know the excitement would be cut short when the dishwasher started to drain. Instead of draining directly into the pipes of the kitchen sink, when the dishwasher began to drain the water started pouring out of the overflow spout next to the faucet. Not a big deal, I just twisted the spout of the overflow so that the water poured into the sink instead of over the counter. Or so I thought. As the dishwasher started to drain for the second time the water began to shoot into the sink, around the sink, over the counters, and on the floor. After exclaiming some not so very nice words and trying my best to channel the water into the sink with my hands, the dishwasher switched back to cleaning. Not a big deal, I used my sponge and more paper towels to clean up the water. But do you know how many times a dishwasher drains during one wash cycle? Four. I learned that today.

Luckily tonight I have finished unpacking and now my living room is actually a nice space to spend time in. Tomorrow I am figuring out the telephone and internet so I don't have to keep bothering my friends for their internet.



**Before I left LA I had to sell all of my living room furniture because the expense of shipping it across the country just wasn't worth it. Unfortunately this means that I don't have furniture to unpack everything into, hence the repacking of boxes. Furthermore, this means that these repacked boxes will now be a permanent fixture in my living room. Well at least until I purchase some living room furniture.