Living 'close' is really nice!

Absolutely the scariest thing for Josh and I in moving to a new city was making a decision about where to live.  We spent a very fast three days in Nashville in April as a little 'pre-honeymoon,' desperately hoping to find the perfect apartment that would meet all of our spacial, safety, cleanliness, commute-related, and budgetary needs.  If you read the last post, you already know that we ended up in an apartment that we love, but I don't think I mentioned how blessed we feel that we found this apartment in this location.

As we explored our options, we weighed the pros and cons of second bedrooms, gated access, saving money, and distance from campus.  The more we considered things, the more we realized how much our marriage would benefit if we could find ourselves somewhere close to campus.  Having both commuted 20-40 minutes to our respective jobs before, we knew that the shorter Josh's commute was, the more time he would spend at home, and therefore, the more time we would have together.  Ultimately, though unfortunately after we returned from our quick three day visit, we found the perfect little apartment that would put us right there next to campus.

Not being from Nashville, of course, we actually had no idea how close and how convenient the spot we picked has ended up to be!  As the wife of a medical student, I cannot tell you how thankful I am that Josh's classes and activities are literally a five minute drive (or 14 minute walk) from our front door.  For me, this has meant that when Josh has to be at anatomy lab at 5am, I can roll out of bed, drop him off, and be back in bed with another two hours to sleep.  Or, when Josh wants to print out his lecture notes at 10pm, I know he'll be home again before I've even finished getting ready for bed.  Or, if Josh has a pre-exam study session he'd like to attend in the evenings, he can still make time to come home for dinner with 'wifey.'  Am I lucky, or what?

Since I already gave you a tour of the apartment, I thought I would give all of you back home a tour of the neighborhood!  This should give you a little sneak peak into the in's and out's of our day to day :)  For those of you reading from Nashville, I suppose there's really no lesson for you here...but thanks for your new friendship and for reading along!

I organized the tour along the loop that Josh and I walk to and from school/work each day.  Yes, we walk together every morning.  It is the best part of my day.  Walking home tends to be a little warmer than I'd like, but I enjoy that also!

About two blocks from our apartment is a park and city monument called the Parthenon.  It is actually a full-size replica of the Parthenon in Greece built in 1897 for an extravagant fair that became a permanent landmark in Nashville, the "Athens of the South."  It's actually really beautiful when they light it up at night!

One night near the end of July, Josh and I saw a facebook post from a new friend that they were filming a scene of the TV show Nashville at the Parthenon.  We ventured the two blocks down the road and got to see 'Juliette Barnes' perform a scene for the premier of season 2!  Look for this scene in tomorrow night's premier and know that Josh and I were there!

Another two blocks from the Parthenon (an eight minute walk from our apartment) is my current place of employment - the Barnes and Noble at Vanderbilt.  I'm loving working  about 30 hours a week in the Vanderbilt merchandise department.  I get to talk to prospective students and parents about the college search process and help organize piles and piles of Vanderbilt gear.  It's even helped me get excited about football season!

A few minutes past the Barnes and Noble would be my lovely husband's place of study.  Door to door, you can't get much better than his fourteen minute walk!  And he's been spoiled.  Anytime I haven't had to be at work myself, he's had a ride :)

And finally, the last stop I thought I'd include is the football stadium.  On the return loop from campus, the stadium is about halfway home (seven minutes walking).  You should see this town on game days!  Josh and I got season tickets, so I'm really enjoying getting to follow the team with him.  At the last game, he spent the whole second half explaining to me how football defense works.  It made for a great evening!  And it makes it nice that we can just walk over to the stadium and walk home, no traffic, no parking, no hassle!

Also nearby, but not pictured, are a ton of restaurants, a little grocery store we try not to frequent (it's over-priced and a little stinky), and a number of hotels.  We truly are right in the middle of things!

Who knows where we'll end up a year or two from now, but at least at the moment, our little corner of 'midtown' is better than we could have possibly imagined.  I imagine as the weather begins to change and the course material continues to grow, we'll only appreciate our 'nearness' more and more!

Thanks for reading! And for all the birthday wishes!