I Live in Kansas Now

Here's my apartment. I kinda love it.

I've enjoyed decorating my new place. It's set up a lot differently than my last apartment so I've been trying to figure out where to put everything but so far I like it. I am SO HAPPY to be the proud new owner of a bedroom set that was not meant for a 5 year old. Finally! I also love my little computer/desk nook in my bedroom. It hides all of my junk perfectly. There's tons of closet space inside and out. Maybe next year I'll get a small outdoor furniture set. I would love a hammock-type chair so I can sit outside and read. For now, I'm enjoying reading in my enormous bed so I can't complain too much. :) I'm going to try to continue on without cable (I've got to pay for gas to work somehow) and am doing well just watching TV online. It's a beautiful thing.

Here's the story as to why I'm in Kansas in case you missed it. Sears decided to move their apparel buying offices to San Francisco. For two months, none of us knew if we were going to have jobs once upper management made the decisions about who to take. My boss encouraged me to apply for other jobs just in case. I applied within the company for several positions and actually received an offer as an assistant buyer in toys, I was interviewing with a company called Gordman's (based in Omaha) for a distribution analyst position, and was interviewing with Payless all at the same time. Talk about stress! I finally found out I received an offer to move to San Francisco with Sears and a couple of days later received a phone call from Payless. Payless flew me out to its office in Topeka, Kansas and I had a full day of interviews. I thought they went pretty well and really enjoyed talking to the interviewers. I left thinking I would love to receive an offer but was nervous about having to move to Kansas. I went to San Fran for my "pre-decision trip" and while I was there, received my official offer from Payless. My head was all over the place. I was torn because SF is an amazing place. How fun would it be to live there for a couple of years?! Unfortunately, I was very unhappy with my job at Sears. It was a very negative place for the most part and in the end, I decided my career was more important than the cool-factor of the city I was living in. Two days after my trip ended, I let Sears know that I would be declining the offer and leaving for another company. And here I am!

Right after my trip to SF, Jodi and I drove to Kansas City to look for housing. I was stressing because we were seeing these apartments that Jodi said had "charm" but I called old and run down. I decided to check out a suburb of KC and found Overland Park. I definitely think I made the right choice of the city to live in! Pretty much everything I need is in a 5 mile radius and it's all new and still being developed. It's not far from KC and it just fits me really well for what I need right now. I may move into the city at another time but we'll just have to see how this goes first. For now, I'm just over an hour away from work (yikes) but I'm getting used to it and I don't mind the drive in, it's the drive home that gets me. There's no traffic and hardly any lights to deal with. I'm very nervous for the winter but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. The next closest city to Topeka is Lawrence which is the home of Kansas University. I'm not really in the mood for a college town but the winters might just make it worth it.

I've been attending a singles ward out here which is MUCH bigger than the branch I was attending in Chicago. They have activities every weekend so I've been getting to know people pretty quickly. Unfortunately, most of the people that have really befriended me are leaving in the fall. I guess I'll get to start the friend making process all over again in just about a month.

Last weekend we went to Far West and Adam-Ondi-Ahman which are a couple of church history sites. There wasn't a lot to see but it's always cool to go to a place that you learn about. It's just like seeing the original piece of art that you study in your art history classes. It makes it all real.

Adam-Ondi-Ahman

Far West

So that's my life so far here. More adventures to come!