Life in Atlanta

Monday, August 8th will mark my one month anniversary with Atlanta. Our relationship got off to a rocky start, as I was still not over Tallahassee, the city I had an ongoing love affair with that had lasted about 21 years. I knew Tallahassee like the back of my hand and we had shared many memories and milestones together. Tallahassee is where I grew up and is the place I learned to ride a bike and then eventually to drive when I traded in my two wheels for four. Its the place I met all my best friends and went to college. Its where I had my first job, my first kiss, and my first broken bone. Although Tallahassee and I had outgrown one another, I will always think of Tally as home. During my first few days with Atlanta, I learned the basics and the lay of the land, for the most part. I got lost and drove down many unknown streets as I tried to find my way to the grocery store and learn how to use my new Garmin (Louisa and I will also have our one month anniversary on the 8th). Things were much simpler with Tallahassee - if you knew Capital Circle, Monroe Street or Tennessee Street, you could get anywhere!

Atlanta has taught me many things over the past 4 weeks as we have strengthened our bond and gotten to know one another better: for starters, she is a people person most around the hours of 8:30 - 9:30 am and 5:00 - 6:00 pm. That's when she likes to see everyone out and about. Secondly, her favorite word is "Peachtree" - hence why there are about 22 streets with the word "Peachtree" in them. Atlanta is also very sociable and offers an array of things to do to match any personality. I have not yet experienced the many different sides of Atlanta, but look forward to going to a Braves game, a concert, a play, doing some serious shopping, visiting the underwater creatures at the Aquarium, walking through one of the many parks, and eating at the multitude of fine restaurants all over the city! This is definitely the beginning of a beautiful relationship!

Other than spending some quality time with Atlanta, I have met a great group of people from my office! My second week in Atlanta was not actually spent in Atlanta. I flew to Chicago and attended a week-long training session in St. Charles (almost an hour outside of Chicago) for work, where I really bonded with the other new hires not only in my office, but in other offices around the U.S. Training was a blast! We had class everyday and would hang out and do something different every night. Ashley was so jealous and excited for me when she heard about my training, saying it reminded her of her days at cheerleading camp, where the squad really bonded for the first time. And in some ways, it was a lot like that! We would eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together everyday in the cafeteria and we spent our free time together, talking, laughing and getting to know one another better. We went to the bar in the training center one night, a casino in St. Charles the next night, and literally sat around talking, listening to music, telling stories and watching YouTube videos in one person's room another night (thanks again, Aaron, for letting us use your room as our hang out spot - you're awesome :). When the week finally came to an end, I was sad to say good-bye to all my new friends and one person in particular. All in all, it was a very memorable week and I can't wait to go back for our next training session in November!

Since then, I have spent more time with Atlanta and getting to know her better to see if I think this could be a long-lasting relationship. She has been very patient with me as I trek back and forth across her heart, Louisa firmly by my side, and I am proud to report I have successfully been able to get to and from work without Louisa's assistance for the past week! I have also left my apartment without Louisa on one occasion and hope to repeat this sometime in the future.

Other than driving around Atlanta, I have passed my weekends spending time with a friend from work and her boyfriend and their friends from school. We've had game night, layed out by the pool, and played wiffleball and I've had a blast! I was also invited to play softball with one of our company's teams last week. And those of you that know me are probably laughing, thinking to yourself "Lindsay playing sports?!" I must say I did pretty well for myself and was even invited to play again! I made contact with the ball both times I went to bat and even made it on base once! A huge success in my books! Unfortunately, Becker has also been there to fill my time, but that's not nearly as exciting.

Work has been good! I'm still learning the ropes and am trying to enjoy the calm before the storm. I've had quite a bit of free time at the office over the past 2 weeks and have been very fortunate to be able to do some CPA studying during my downtime. But I'm also very anxious to get my hands on some real work!