Making a Home, Again
Wow hello welcome to my crib, I'm writing this in a very very empty home and it's the fourth time I've done this in like five years and it's fun and tiring and exciting and also there have been at least two entire meals eaten on the (impeccably clean) floor.
Let's talk about moving.
Matt and I met in college. I was a sophomore and Matt was a junior and we moved in together on a whim. It was the pretty standard level of exhilarating, horrifying, sad, and happy all at once. Relationships aren't easy, and a relationship between two young people still completely unsure of their own identities is even harder.
There were fights and makeups and too much whiskey because college and a very grossly stained carpet and a bunk bed from Ikea in the living room "for when our friends come over." Which is a very very very college thing to do.
From there we moved into a luxury loft apartment in downtown New Orleans, which was honestly the biggest 180 we've ever done. And then there was our adorable pink home with a yard. Except it stopped being adorable when the tribulations of living in an old home kicked in (read: hot, roaches, crumbling, bleh).
That's where everything gets ... weird.
We talked about moving a million times—maybe LA, or Denver, or Palm Springs. Maybe even Mexico City? But before that we needed a break from New Orleans, a time to live nowhere, and to see if we actually wanted to move and if so where and how and blah blah blah (insert anxiety attack here).
That's the part of lives we will just call, Chapter Rosie, and you can read all about it here. TL;DR we lived in a camper and travelled the country and it was great.
Flash forward almost an entire year, and we're all moved in to a brand new apartment. Literally brand new, like no one has ever lived here before. There's a ton of windows and a balcony and a big kitchen, and two bedrooms, and a pool, and a gym, and there aren't bugs and it isn't hot.
And we're not exactly in New Orleans. We moved just about 45 minutes north of the city to a town called Covington. If you'd told either of us we'd be living in Covington, like, five months ago even, we'd laugh in your face. When we tell our friends in New Orleans that we moved to Covington, they're always like "...why?" and immediately friend dump us. The move kind of makes no sense, unless you consider we needed some space from New Orleans but weren't ready to fully leave, and really just needed any home that would be nice and clean and comfortable and big. It's like a mini vacation, or something—giving us space to breathe and focus on what we want the next few years of our lives to look like without the distractions of downtown New Orleans right outside our door.
We'll dive more in to what Covington is like over the next year—but for now you can check out our blog post about the area, and here's a quick low down. It's one of several small towns clustered together just north of Lake Pontchartrain. To get here from New Orleans you have to cross the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway *which* is the longest continuous bridge over water in the world so, you know, that's cool. Covington has an incredibly cute downtown, is still rather liberal compared to most of Louisiana, has a fantastic food scene, and easy access to nature. A lot of New Orleanians (mostly transplants who flocked to New Orleans for 'culture') think of it as a suburban wasteland because they've never been exploring over here—but for us, having grown up in New Orleans, this area was always kind of a fun getaway from the city, with bike trails and kayaking and massive trees and space to breathe. Which is what we need right now.
Anyhow, we've got our work cut out to make this modern apartment feel like a cozy home. In every place we've ever lived, we've made creating that "at home" feeling a priority. Having guests over and long nights of too much wine and too many laughs is what really makes a place feel like home. As are nights spent between just the two of us, cuddled up in bed watching shitty TV. So, wow, a lot to get done! TTYL!
xoxo Beau (and Matt!)