Day 1: Arrival

I officially live in New Orleans.

I arrived last night at 1am after driving two legs worth of a trip. The second leg was 16 hours long from Virginia to here. Originally, I was going to stay in Birmingham for a night, put on a fancy dress, take my independent and strong self out for a fabulous dinner. But an unfortunate side effect of this being this independent and strong is that I have moved to New Orleans without a job and with a fantastic apartment that is not the kind of domicile you rent if you are moving to New Orleans without a job.

Oh my God, I don't have a job.

For me, this is frightening not only because of the delicate nature of my economic standing but also because I would say 60 percent of my personal identity is caught up in my occupation. In New York, I had what can be referred to as a good job -- I made good money, I had been promoted a number of times in a short span of time, my co-workers were hilarious, results were easily recognized. But outside that bubble, I felt like I was hitting my head against the wall. That's really all I can say about that and not feel like I'm airing too much bizness on the internet.

Personally though, I felt the same way. The rest of the 40% was also feeling stagnant. My mother, who I have lived in the same state as for 31 years (minus 5 months I spent living in Connecticut, which is a story for another post), moved to Colorado. I lived in a three bedroom, super cheap but super isolated, apartment with two roommates generations younger than I am. I spent way too much platonic time with my ex-boyfriend. Nothing felt like it was moving forward.

So I moved to New Orleans with no job, a ritzy apartment, and three friends city-wide.

I don't move into my apartment until Friday and until then I'm staying with Dr. Anna who lives in a massive and well-kept house. I stayed with her when I came to visit twice in the last year. She's the only one I know well who has a job more stressful than mine. She seems so happy here. And she has a dishwasher and washer-dryer. That was enough to convince me to give everything up and come down here in a quest for more.

This was my dinner on my first night in town. Frozen carrots and okra from her freezer and brown wild rice that I found cleaning out my old pantry and stuck in a plastic bag in my backseat for food emergencies.

Frugalness in a borrowed pot.