I am in Ohio! Everyone reading this should already know that, but it begs repeating. I'm in Ohio!

So what have I done since I left good ol' Texas. Well... I drove 16 hours straight, slept for six hours and then drove for another eight before arriving at our new townhome. We didn't do much that first day, since we were all too exhausted to think. The next day Mike and I unloaded the truck all by ourselves (yes, 'hardcore' is the word you're thinking of) while Marvin painted. The next few days were a blur of furniture construction, box rearranging and Walmart trips. I don't think there was a single day in our first week that we didn't go to Walmart. Once that stuff was all set and my parents left, Mike and I began to unpack everything, which was my least favorite part. I made him to most of it.

But now we are mostly settled, with just a few more little things to organize or fix up. Now I don't really have much of anything to do until school starts (39 more days). I plan on enjoying it fully by catching up on TV shows, reading as much as I possibly can and exploring the city as much as my budget will allow (which isn't much). So far, I've rewatched Firefly and Serenity (mostly for Mike's benefit) and Mad Men season 2, and now I'm starting to catch up on Weeds. I also got to take Bean to a dog park, which was awesome. There are lots of them here, so I plan on scoping them out, pitting them against each other, seeing which has the best foreign language program. Only the best for my Beanikins.

So tomorrow (or so) I'll take some pictures of the place so that you guys can see it. But until then, here's what I can tell you're all dying to know... things that are different up here in the not-so-great, not-so-white North:

• No one here has parking lot etiquette. Cars will back up without looking, ignore you when you're backing up, park in two spaces, steal spaces like fiends and no one heeds the parking lot stop signs. Even pedestrians are horrible; they walk in the middle of the lane, leave car doors open for hours and stop in the middle of the crosswalk. It's probably the last thing I would have expected to notice, but it is so very annoying.
• Phone number format is different here. No, it's not 614-555-5555 or (614)555-5555. It's 614/555-5555. I have never seen this before and it quietly weirds me out every time I see it.
• You know those helpful little arrow signs next to intersections, the ones that tell you which lanes you can turn from? They are everywhere here. Not even just at lighted intersections. Even at simple four-way stop signs. Even when a left turn lane appears in the median, there's an arrow sign for that. I guess it's just to make absolutely sure you know that yes, that 500 ft. long lane there, off to the left, is only to be used to turn left. Don't try to go straight, seriously, this is left turn only, grass ahead, you were warned. It makes me feel stupid when I drive.
• They call sub sandwiches 'grinders.' How wrong is that? It doesn't even sound appetizing.
• Avocados are like an endangered species up here. We've been to three grocery stores and the avocado sections are either empty or populated with a few sickly, shriveled specimens. It makes me weep. (Update: we went to the grocery store today, and they had avocados, but they were all really underripe. An improvement, definitely, but still.)
  
• There is no Chick-Fil-A. So sad. However, there are some delicious alternatives (Donatos, a pizza place, White Castle, etc.)
• Eastern time zone throws off all of my TV-watching times. That is the only effect it has.
• Freeways have no feeders here. It is very inconvenient. And all of the entrance ramps are counter-intuitive. Like turning north to get to the south-bound side. At least there are more than enough street signs telling me where to turn.