The older I get the more I appreciate how much easier my life was when I was living with my parents. My Mom is incredible. She made my life so easy and I didn’t even realize it until I got out in big girl world and realized how many things weren’t magically doing themselves all that time but were being done by my sweet Momma.
One would think as I near 2 years of being here in Florida I would be in a perfect little routine by now, but no. I’m FINALLY dealing with understanding my benefits and scheduling appointments to go to the eye doctor and dentist. I never knew how much work it is to know your policy, what you’re allowed, what services costs, etc. Go figure. Where’s my Mom when I need her? I stumbled through my own research to figure out what I can get done within my budget (gr) and what I need by when. It wasn’t terrible thanks to online accounts, it’s pretty easy to get through your benefits quickly and list out services.
I did however, pick the closest eye doctor to my house (that was recommended by my insurance policy) because I had zero idea how else to pick one. Oh, you’re less than a mile from my house? You will do. Oh it says Family is your name? Perfect. That should do. What else do you do but give one a try? If I hate them, I’ll try number 2 on the list next year I guess.
I have a rather laid back approach to being an adult. Not to be confused with being lazy, which I am not. I have accepted that in large part growing up and taking on adult life as a single girl in a big city is a process of trial and error. I choose to laugh at myself along the way, when I realized I’ve been doing something all wrong. A great example would be that for my first year living here I was so scared to take routes off the main roads I knew, that I later realized I was driving COMPLETELY out of the way to practically everywhere just to take roads I knew. Well, you do what you have too, right? Or as some say, you do the best you know, until you know better, and then you change.
I make plenty of silly mistakes. Like setting the microwave wrong and cooking something for 12:00 minutes instead of 1:20. Charcoal anyone?
Turns out there are rules about how you put your trash out…oops. In my complex they’re especially nazi about these rules which include that you can only use white trash bags, not black and you can only put the trash out during a 5 hour period each day. Oh yeah, and cardboard? Not happenin’! Thanks to a friendly neighbor I was saved before the $50.00 per bag punishment was inflicted on me. Whew.
Other lessons I’ve learned from being on my own? If your first bill from a company doesn’t come for 3 months, it’s not because they’re slow it’s because something went terribly wrong and you should call before said utility is shut off. Ah, so naïve I am. If you fall walking down the stairs carrying a kitchen chair you WILL poke a hole in your wall that has to be fixed. Gr.When you hire people to redo your flooring, one week into being a new condo owner you may want to hire a translator so that when they can’t understand you as you explain it’s 8am on a Saturday and their Spanish hip-hop music is so loud they can hear it in Russia – they will actually understand you. No such luck for me. In fact, my condo had a real live musical with dancing and singing. Who knew that there was a Spanish version of My Heart Will Go On the remix? Not I.
You realize as you encounter these hilariously awkward or out of sorts moments in your life, that your parents are so much wiser than you thought. Or maybe they just made their mistakes before I was around to notice. Either way, I miss having their help. Life is like that sometimes.
Love,
B
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