Our Life Outside the Box

We’ve moved out of SoBo and will be floating around to various places over the next month and a half until Amanda’s Houston job begins. This will probably be the last post about SoBo unless we can track down our digital camera and post the videos we took of us bowling in our living room. In any event, here is a description of our time in South Boston, VA by the numbers:

• SoBo Population: 8,491
• Tornadoes survived: 2
• Mouse body count: 1
• Percentage of SoBo vehicles that are trucks: 75% (conservative estimate)
• Quantity of brass balls sighted dangling from F150s: one pair
  
• NASCAR Speedways: 1
• Trips to the town dump: 8
• Price of evening movie ticket: $5.50 (or two tickets free with purchase of $20 in food at the bar next door)
  
• Weekends spent in SoBo: 2 (out of 13)
• Trips to roller skating rink: 0
• Friends made: 1 (Cheers to the hilarious Debi Duckett!)
• Average miles per week put on the Camry: 700
• Roadkill sightings per 30 miles: 16 +/-5
• Puppies rescued: 2
• Price of La Fin du Monde beer: $4.95
• Ticks found in bed: 2
  
• Speeding tickets: 2
• Parking tickets: 0 (this is impressive seeing as though Amanda was averaging 1 per week in Arlington)
• Average temperature of our rental house: (a balmy) 88 degrees

So long SoBo!

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Our first travel rotation is moving into its final leg. Nine weeks are down and there are only four more to go. We’ve settled into a groove in which we travel every weekend, return home exhausted, grind out the coming week, and repeat it all over again. In the past month we’ve visited my parents’ retirement home in North Carolina for Mothers’ Day, traveled to Virginia Beach for a weekend in the sun, made it back to DC for a wedding, and finished out strong in the Poconos at what is arguably the best party of any year: the Felins Memorial Day blowout.

You stay classy South Boston!

Each weekend has been a whirlwind of travel and good times, an interesting juxtaposition to our weekly SoBo life. During the week we usually stay home and relax because there isn’t much nightlife.  I cook most weeknights because the restaurants are not exactly plentiful and we can only eat at the nice place in town so many times without wearing it out. As someone who is enamored with ethnic food like Indian, Thai, or Pho I’ve personally found the lack of food diversity and quality dining options to be the toughest adjustment to life in the sticks. Living in the country has been pleasant but at this point Amanda and I are longing for a place with a little more going on. We’re both high-octane, ADD people and the middle of nowhere is not exactly where we belong. To this point we’ve been getting by just fine but we’re about ready to mosey on out of here.

That’s why the next few weeks are so exciting even if they are a little stressful. The search for Amanda’s next job placement has been gathering steam quickly and there’s several options on the table at this point. I don’t want to get into specifics right now because I’m mildly incredibly superstitious about jinxing opportunities.  We’ll put it all out there as soon as a decision is final.

I’d like to take this opportunity to throw out two congratulations. First, to Rob and Michelle who were recently engaged. Also, to Doug and Stephany who were married one week ago. Their wedding was a blast and we were honored to be there even if it meant hanging out with a bunch of Notre Dame grads. Apologies for Amanda throwing my drink on the floor after becoming overly excited about the DJ’s selection of ‘Sweet Caroline’. I’m still a little salty that they were not introduced as ‘Mr. & Dr. Small.’ Steph didn’t get her PhD for nothing and I think it’s wrong to just ignore it. All kidding aside, congratulations and best wishes.

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