Hunger Pains...

I thought that once a few weeks passed and I got over the glory of being "on my own" that I would start getting home sick! I was very sad to see that these "pains" were starting to actually be physical, and that's when it dawned on me that they weren't homesick pains, they were actual hunger pains.

I had lost a lot of weight living on my own. Money is tight, especially since I don't have a job! I had been surviving on soup, some days I was surviving on orange juice, or water. It sucks to be hungry, now I really do feel bad when I see those commercials saying how only 25 cents can help someone dealing with hunger. It was definitely true! Shit, I could get a nice bag of chips with a quarter, if I only had one! They should've put my face on those damn commercials!

When I did have money though I was craving things that I could normally get in New York at any given hour of the day. The great debate always takes place whenever my boyfriend and I decide what we want to eat! We were on an arby's kick for awhile, seeing as we don't have arby's in my city, the bronx, I was very excited that now it was at my luxury! Arby's everywhere!

There came a time that I wanted a sandwich, from a deli. Unfortunately, Tennessee was very misinformed about what exactly qualifies as a deli! I've asked around about these strange "deli's" to my fellow Tennesseans, everyone looked at me as if I were crazy. I tried my best to use precise detail in trying to get my point across, I would say: "You know, a deli, like, where you go in, and there's a guy behind the counter, and he has a selection of boarshead meat, and you tell him what kind of sandwich you want, and he slices the meat for you! You can usually go into a gas station or a bodega and get a sandwich of that sort!?" It hadn't dawned on me that I lost them at boarshead. "What the hells a boarshead?" "Why would you get a sandwich from a gas station, that's dirty, and what in Gods name is a bodega?"

It seems that delis down here are already menued places. You don't get to pick and choose! You have subway, jersey mikes, quiznos, or jason's, all of which have menus! All of which do not slice the meat there for you! It hurts me to think I can't just get up and go to the corner and get just a ham and cheese, and pay $2, instead I have to buy these $5 footlongs!

Another thing I noticed is that we don't have a fair selection of spanish food, or, halal food (that chicken and rice you can get from the guy on the street). Whenever I ask if there are any good spanish places down here, someone goes, "Well, there's Las Palmas, down there on Edmondson." And then I go through and try to explain the clear difference between mexican food and spanish food. "Well, Mexicans are Mexicans." No, actually, not all spanish people are  mexican and eat tacos!

When I go home to visit, I have a laundry list of places to go eat at that I had once taken for granted! Who knew, that I'd miss these simple little things like ham and cheese sandwiches and rice and chicken from some guy who hasn't showered for weeks.

I like it down here in Tennessee, but there really is, no place like home.

2 Feet...

I started becoming accustomed to living in Nashville, so I thought. It wasn't until my rude awakening at least. I went out to lunch with Daniel before he had to head out to work. We went to this place called Jersey Mikes, kind of like a subway but a little better, I was actually surprised at how good it was. 

When we finished eating at Jersey Mikes, Daniel said that we needed to hurry to leave in order for him to get me home and for him to get to work on time. Me, being the savvy New Yorker that I am told Daniel, not to worry!, I'm going to go to Walmart and pick up some groceries so that way I can put my cooking skills to use when he got home.Daniel sort of looked at me as though I had four heads. He said, "You can't walk home, are you crazy?!" I was confused, I said, it's just down the street, how bad could it be?! He was concerned about the heat, and I reassured him that I was going to be fine, "I'm from New York! I walk everywhere!!" He gave me the key and said, "Goodluck."

After buying some groceries to make chicken parm with spaghetti, and have a nice cool drink of limeaid for when I made it home, I set off down the street to walk back to my apartment complex. By the time I made it through the Walmart parking lot I was already too hot and exhausted, what the hell was I thinking?!?! 

I carried these heavy ass bags all the way to Walgreens, where I bought one of those homeless people shopping carts, that way I didn't have to carry those things all the way home. I was trying to explain to the lady that it was a shopping cart that I needed, she said, "Oh honey those are outside!" Did she want me to steal one? I reminded her that it was a shopping cart that I could purchase! "Why would you need one of them?" Is she serious, asking me these stupid questions?!Why did she care why I needed a shopping cart! I explained to her that I just moved here from New York, and that I didn't drive, and I needed it to hold my groceries in so I could walk home. "Ya don't drive? Well, why not?" She obviously hadn't been listening to me, everyone knows that if you come from New York, nine times out of ten you are unable to drive. So much for southern hospitality, I clearly explained it to her, guess she had better things to do than to listen to my story.

I finally  buy the shopping cart and to my dismay I realized, I have to build the damn thing. Seriously?! I was regretting not having Daniel just take me home. As I'm trying to figure out which wheel goes where I meet this woman that is just staring at me. I look up at her, and sort of smile to try and act friendly. "Aren't those things just wonderful?!" I smirked and didn't realize what she was talking about, until she told me how to set up my homeless man cart. I never met anyone so excited about these homeless men carts before. She helped me fix it and I thanked her, I put my bags in my homeless cart and started my way home.

In Tennessee, at least in my neighborhood, they feel that it is quite alright to not have any sidewalks. So I'm trying to lug this 25 pound homeless cart around in this dirt and grass path that was about 2 feet wide, while trying not to get hit by these maniac drivers they have down here. I was busting out a sweat and my feet were now gray! People driving by in their cars looked so confused as they passed by me, I was half tempted to sit along the road with an empty cup and sign, maybe they would really think I'm homeless and offer me some money. Anything helps, by this point I had no shame.

By the time I made it home, it had taken me about,close to an hour and a half and I was literally about to collapse.  Tennessee really needed to modify their state for those people who might want to take obscenely long and strenuous walks, why not? I learned the hard way that day, that maybe it was time for me to at least try to learn how to drive, because I was obviously getting nowhere far or fast with just my 2 feet.

New Territory...

Life immediately slowed down as soon as I stepped off that plane, well, the old man in front of me was walking the pace of a snail...and that's when it hit me, I'm no longer required to rush around like a crazy person, I'm not in New York anymore. No longer do I need to walk at an unhumanly pace, losing my breathe, and trying to race past the person in front of me. I'm not in New York anymore. But, I still felt this urge, this crazy energy emerging from me, I wanted to run the old man in front of me over...STOP WALKING SO SLOW! I was saying very unlady like things in my mind to this poor, innocent, old man, just because he wasn't walking at my approved pace.

My wonderful boyfriend greets me at the airport, and then explains to me how he has to rush back to work, cause he was already running late from picking me up. At first I was bummed but then soon after realized, I'm going to see him everyday! It was sort of surreal at the moment...I've never lived anywhere other than New York, and with my parents. This was going to be quite an adventure!

Daniel drops me home and I am faced with the challenge of finding something to do. Ideally, I grab the tv remote, sit on my ass, and watch some of the Food Network programming. Then this crazy thing dawned upon me, "Maybe I should like, clean or something." So I did. Once the dishes, laundry, and my room were spotless, I decided that I would call my mom, just to say hey. When she asked me what I was doing, I was a bit afraid to tell her how I did an obscene amount of chores, something I never did living with her, I feared she would yell at me, so I told her I was watching tv.

By the time Daniel got off of work I was starving! I was afraid to eat the food in my own house, forgetting that I was no longer a guest, the food in the fridge was now also partly mine. I told Daniel that we should go out and get something to eat, in which he replied, "If anything is open." Devastation hit. It was only about 9 at night on a Sunday, something had to be open...at least I was praying to God that something would be open.

I come from the city that never sleeps, and coming from me, let's just say this new city, is very well rested.

Leaving...

It was a week until I was moving out of my parent's house and I was starting to get excited about leaving my city and starting my life in a new one. Another thing I was pretty excited about was the fact that my parents were going to throw me a barbeque for it, little did I know, that would be my last good meal for awhile. 

As I sat there with my family and friends, I started realizing how much I was truly going to miss them, and I realized that no matter what I did, they were always there to support me, and if things didn't go according to plan I had people to come home to, and they would be there with big open arms, and of course the "I told you so." But whatever, everyone needs their fifteen minutes of glory. 

I finally get on the plane, teary eyed, and feeling like a little girl, missing mommy already, but then I put on my big girl panties and said, "Brittany, you're an adult now, time to act like it." So with those words of wisdom from myself, I stopped crying, but I also stopped crying because I got excited that I would shortly be receiving my free bag of pretzels and can of coke, the flight attendant was at the row in front of me.

We land in Detroit, where I am always under the impression that whenever I call my grandma she will answer the phone, she didn't this time either. I make my way through this enormous airport, where I was already feeling like an outsider, little did I know I actually had something in common with these people, we were classified, Northerners. 

I'm on my final flight; it's just like the other flights, long enough, boring, with a screaming child next to me, except this flight didn't have pretzels, they had peanuts, so I was a bit disappointed.(for those who know me, they understand my hatred towards peanuts and any of its other products.) This flight seemed unusually long, though it was only a 2 hour flight, I was getting nervous at the fact that this was the last plane I was going to be on for awhile. It wasn't like, I was on the plane already counting down the days til I had to be on the one going back home, no, this was now the flight taking me home.

We finally land in Nashville. I'm greeted by tons of southern accents, country music, and enormous replicas of guitars. "Welcome to Nashville, The Music City." I was definitely out of my element, even the greeting signs were nice and friendly...this definitely wasn't New York.

Introduction

Hey there! My name is Brittany. I am a 21 year old who has just begun the journey of a life on her own.

This blog is going to be a showcase of daily things I go through during my journey! There won't be much to this blog, because, as you can see the title clearly states, "Introduction." This first blog is to just introduce you to me, and give you a glimpse into my future posts. 

This is me. 

 

They call me: Brittany

 

How many candles are on my birthday cake?: 21

 

I blow them out on: September 9th

I have: An amazing family, boyfriend, and kitten. =)

This Blog: Will discuss the hardships and changes I will face as I move from New York City to Nashville, Tennessee.

As promised, this first post is going to be short and sweet, like me. More posts to follow very shortly!