What I'm Learning Living in Indiana: Indy Edition

So I've been in Indianapolis for less than a month. It's been a nutty couple of weeks, and I feel completely off my game - as though I had a game. Some days I'm on top of everything, mind completely clear and organized. Other days, I'm so scattered I'm lucky to get out of my apartment with shoes on. I suppose this is all the process of settling into a new place, but anyone who knows me knows that this part of the process is not one that I enjoy.

I have probably learned more about myself in the past few weeks than is healthy for any one person. A few examples:

1. It is actually possible for a 1-1.5 mile drive to take nearly an hour, without traffic. I manage to "take a new route" (um, yes, get lost) nearly every day on my way home from work. I can see my apartment from my office. And I can get to my office just fine. But, getting home, well, it's an adventure every day. I know the streets I need to be on. I also know that the one-ways and diagonals get me all confused, and before I know it, I'm in a neighborhood I've never seen before, or I'm heading toward an interstate (but not the one I live near - that would be too easy), or I've made a big square around The Circle. Now, I'm not an idiot, and I do actually have a good sense of direction, without needing maps or GPS. But you'd never know it to spend an hour with me after work.
2. On a related note: Swearing at your GPS - or at least at my GPS, which is named Ilsa (full name: Ilsa, the malevolent and malicious GPS) - will be cathartic, but will not actually help get you to a destination. Of course, Ilsa will also not help get you to a destination, so...
   
3. It is probably not the wisest decision for someone who is 5'3" to live in an apartment that has 10' ceilings and 13' ceilings. It adds to the feeling of defeat on a near-daily basis. On the up-side, however, it will allow me to drag my brother down here every so often to change the light bulbs in my closets. (Downside: even my brother is not tall enough to help hang things from the 10' ceilings. So the decorative birdcage now sits on a bookshelf.)
4. It also may not have been the wisest decision for someone who hates to vacuum to choose to live in an apartment that has carpet. I foresee myself learning to love vacuuming in the months (years) to come, especially as Julia continues to visit.
   
5. Related to #4 above: Julia's new game - "Yogurt Fling!" - is definitely a game that should be played in the kitchen, not the dining room. While it's wildly fun (yogurt in her hair, yogurt in my hair...), it makes Auntie Erin a little anxious.
6. For as much of a hermit as I am, my home - and this may be true of any home - but my home is certainly better with more than me in it.
   
7. Getting up early to spend an hour in the local coffee shop before going to work is totally worth it.
8. At some point in my life, I'm going to have to learn how to make friends. You'd think that after somehow making it into my mid-30s, I'd have picked up some basic social skills that translate into friendship development. But making friends has always been a struggle for me - I'm not good at it, and I really only enjoy things I'm good at (serious character flaw, I know). But, since the one friend I have here is going to soon grow tired of being my only friend, I suppose it's time I learn how to play this game.
   
9. I've been trying to live out William James's argument (and I'm paraphrasing here) that if you believe something is worth it, your belief will help create that fact. But I will say that it is an incredibly exhausting outlook to maintain (or perhaps just for someone like me). It takes a lot of energy, but I'm not willing to give up on James just yet.
10. That my boss - the president of the agency I work at - loves The Avett Brothers will, I suspect, go a long way toward making up for petty annoyances yet to come. It's bound to happen that I'll be irked by any number of things about work, so it's good to be reminded in so many ways that the people I work with are good souls overall (because, of course, musical tastes say a lot about the state of a person's soul).