Eleeza is in D.C.!

I have finally arrived. Months of anguish over getting into grad school, then picking a school, then finding a place to live and FINALLY I'm here. It feels good even if I'm sitting on the floor in my new empty apartment typing this. The upshot: Stealing wifi is GREAT!

Zaheera and her younger brother, who's visiting from the OC, picked me up from the airport Friday night. I emerged with 140 pounds of suitcases, an overstuffed backpack and my fabulous brown purse into the muggy heat of D.C. Z assured me that it's much cooler than it's been all summer. Sounds like I have a lot to look forward to next summer.

We grabbed pizza, Z narrowly missed getting arrested (very long and complicated traffic-related story, but suffice to say that we're big fans of DC cops) and everybody crashed early at the new Chez Nista. Incidentally, their new 3-story, 5-bedroom row house in Mt. Pleasant is FABULOUS. I've already asked them to adopt me. They'd never have to change diapers and I'm already grown up. I don't see the downside here. They promised to think it over.

Saturday morning they graciously drove me across the river to Shirlington, my new hood. It's extremely nice having built-in friends when moving to a new city. They saved my butt and I owe them.

Walking into my apartment the first time felt something like checking into a hotel. It's hard to believe that I'll be living here for at least a year. But here I am. Enjoying this:



It'll fill up a bit more today. I'm waiting for Dr. Freddy to show up and take me to Ikea in his fabulous truck. Isn't he a fabulous friend? Go ahead, give him props. He needs them.

After my very limited moving-in experience, I checked out the Village at Shirlington, a VERY Irvine Co.-type urban living development in which my apartment building is located. It's very cute, if a bit cheesy and obviously commercially developed. However, we have endless options for restaurants. I hit gold with Luna Diner and treated myself to a lovely tuna melt and mixed green salad. There's also a very cool independent movie house just down the street. They're playing "Little Miss Sunshine." I'm hoping to make it over there this week for a matinee.

In the evening, I made my first test run in getting to Georgetown. I was meeting Z and an old editor from the Register at a restaurant on M St. It was super-easy taking the bus to the Pentagon and up to Rosslyn. From there, it only took me about 15 minutes to walk across the Key Bridge and get over to Mie N Yu, a very hip restaurant, where we had a lovely meal celebrating my first night out in D.C.

So there you have it, I'm settling in very nicely and I'm *very* anxious to get started at school on Friday. Mostly, I'm curious to meet my new classmates and professors, etc. I hope the kids will want to play with me...

Until then, I'll keep you posted with my Swedish furniture purchases and what I'm hoping will be a successful job interview tomorrow.

Keep those fingers and toes crossed for me! I'm jumping off the deep end into the unknown and loving every second of it.