Take a Break

Alright...

Sunday:
So I arrived Sun night at 8pm (12 midnight EST), yes, that's a 4 hr time difference my East Coast friends. I then met my contact from the hospital in baggage claim and she helped me head to my new temporary housing. On the way, we realized the grocery store was closed for the night so that would have to wait.

We arrived to my temporary housing and my roommate was unaware I was coming, unfortunately. I unpacked my suitcases and settled in. Then passed out completely.

Monday:
Got up and headed to the hospital to be introduced to people and got a brief tour (small hospital to walk through really). I met a number of the docs and case managers and was also able to meet my assistant (for the purpose of keeping my sanity, I'm going to call her "A") and get an overview tour through my office. Essentially my office is a big room with my soundbooth, some filing cabinets and a desk. If I had to guess I'd say the room was about 15x25. The booth is a good size.

(This next part is for my audiologist friends, if you're not and audiologist it won't make much sense)
It's got a portable audiometer in addition to OAE, Tymps, lighted animals for centering in VRA, an ABR, The new GSI audiometer and tymps BTW, headphones and inserts, with BC of course. Luckily we've been using Phonak for a while but there are some Seimen's out there too. A and I are planning to go through the cabinets and drawers and reorganize everything so we know where it is and we order supplies we might need since they take quite some time to arrive.  (it's OK for non-audiologists to start reading again).

Then I headed 'home' and changed to start making the treks to the cell phone store and to the Post Office. The cell phone store and the post office each lie on the way to the airport from my place. So I headed first to the post office and found out I needed more paperwork from the hospital to get everything done. So I kept heading to the cell phone store. They were able to get me set up and I'm now the new owner of an Android phone. I'm working on setting up my preferences and downloading apps (internet is slow here so it takes more time than I wish but I'm getting them). Feel free to recommend apps (though please let me know what it does). After getting my phone, I headed 'home' for a bit. Stopping at the convenience store on the way back for some emergency supplies and lunch (a cheeseburger, though I'm not sure what sort of meat it was). ~$70 later I had my 2 bags of supplies and was homeward bound. I made some calls/sent some emails about getting something to say I have a residence so I can get a PO Box. I was able to track down the right person, but not the paperwork, but she told me to come in and she'd get me started. I ended up doing all the paperwork and decided since it was only about 3:30 I'd head back to the post office and try to get a box. And I was successful. I headed back again and relaxed for a bit, sending updates to some people about my new address and phone number, and updating some accounts (at least now my Netflix will be sent to the right place. Not sure if i wanna change my account yet, but at least the disc's will get here.)

My roommate came home right about the time my contact from the hospital called to see if i still needed to go to the grocery store. I did so she took me and about ~$250 later I had my small cart-full of supplies.  Then it was time to make dinner, talk to my folks (it was super late, we're all going to have to get used to communication via 4 hr time difference.

Today:
I have an appointment to go look at two apartments someone has available. a 1 bedroom for $1000/month and a 1 room (studio) for $550 a month. a number of the utilities are included for each. I'll update you guys soon.


Coming soon: breakdown of receipts, see what cost me more and what was actually somewhat reasonable.