  So I am feeling a little better at the moment than I have for the past week. I just signed a lease for an apartment. I did this less than an hour ago at about 10:30 at night. Kind of strange, yes, but I think I am going to kind of like this place...mostly because of the apartment managers. At first I thought they were a little strange, but by the end of tonite I really liked them and they were cracking me up a lot.
They are from the former Soviet Union (from some small country I had never heard of) and with kind of thick accents. I can't understand a word the husband says which is funny because the wife warned me "my husbands english is not good but he likes to talk a lot". They are super friendly though and she told me I had beautiful eyes and was full of energy. What I was thinking though was she thought my eyes were pretty because they probably looked really green because my eyes were red from crying all day. Yes, it was a stressful day. I had a long talk today with my boss about whether I really wanted to be here. It was not that I dislike the work or the the program or my lab...it is just hard being here with no friends near.
It gets kind of lonely. I think these are feelings I was having for awhile but didn't surface until I was under the stress this week of trying to find a place to live in less than two weeks. When I came down to it, I was frustrated about having to put so much effort into finding a place to live where I had so little that makes me happy here. I decided to talk to Joanna and let her in on what was going on with me, so that if I did decide to do something like leave, she wouldn't be shocked.
It was good just to talk about things with someone. I think we decided to just take it a little at a time. Not that this is a huge break through. The problem was, I need to sign a lease and a year is a long commit to make when you are not sure you want to stay somewhere. So, I went with a place I found that offered a 6 month lease. I do like the place I though. It is big...1000 sq ft, has w/d hookups, dishwasher, central air, lets me have my cats, two bedroom. Otherwise, it is just a standard apartment building. It is in Urbana, so I will be moving to a whole new city. I almost rented a pretty nice apartment right across from a park with a great view of a lake. It was nice, less expensive, smaller and without a dishwasher and washer/dryer hookups, but it did have a garage. I have the lease and everything. I think I got spooked by the whole commitment though. So tomorrow I have to go back and tell them that I am not going to rent the place, which I am not looking forward to.
In other news, this past weekend (well actually from about midnite on Wednesday nite to midnite sunday, so kind of a long weekend) I had my niece Corianne while her parents were at a wedding in wisconsin dells. It was fun to have the little one here but she can really tear a place apart. I wish I hadn't been so stressed because I think I really would have enjoyed the weekend more.
We went to a fair and to the park and just kind of hung out. She is and adorable little girl, with some wild hair. I think she will have hair just like Sarah's. She is the only baby I know that they send hair products with in the diaper bag. Anyway, I have lost my train of thought so I will wrap this up. I hope to get to see you all soon, as I miss you much 
