The New Digs!

After a long and slightly painful weekend, our stuff is finally in 1 state and we are settling in! As you know, we are shacking up in my parent's basement until I get a job and we buy a house. We fixed it up a bit so that it feels more like our "home" - check out the new digs!!

Our new living room - mom and dad's couches paired with our entertainment center. It's like a match made in heaven! :)


Our kitchen minus the actual kitchen. All meals are served upstairs at Cafe Quartuccio.


The boudior - where the magic happens!


Ed's instructions each night - :)!!!


We do have our own little bathroom down here and a storage room for some of our stuff. My wardrobe is housed on the 2nd floor of the house in my old bedroom since the closet space is minimal in the basement. We did need to solicit the help of Public Storage to hold most of our belongings, but all in all we are happy and comfortable in our new (temporary) home.

The job stuff is starting to look good so once I land something we will begin our house search. We are really excited about this next new (very expensive) adventure - but will enjoy our cozy little apartment right now. :)

Bon Voyage NYC!

The big move is looming and we are pretty excited about it. Don't get me wrong ~ the thought of packing up the truck, driving 5 hours, and unpacking the truck at 2 locations makes me want to hurl, but I feel like we have been living in limbo since returning from the honeymoon. It will be nice to have all of our belongings in 1 state!

Dad, Ed and I are heading out tonight - hopefully after the big thunderstorm invades the area - and then will commence operation Move to DC tomorrow morning. I'm a bit nervous that our stuff (and I'm talking A LOT of stuff) will not fit into the 16' Penske truck and the 100 sq foot storage unit...but I'm told that I'm being paranoid and not to worry. Easy for them to say. :)

Our newlywed life has been pretty good so far. We are getting settled into our new life in DC and are looking forward to having our own space. Once I secure a job we can really start looking for a house which is so exciting it makes me gitty! It's amazing how much more we can afford down here in the DC Metro area vs. up in New York. :)

The job hunt is slow, but stable. I did have an interview yesterday with the American Nurses Association in their credentialing subsidiary for a marketing position and I think it went well. I have another interview next week for a membership director job so the options are open. I sent out my 66th resume today so I'm PRAYING that something comes through soon. As much as I love being home, it's starting to get a bit boring!!! Lucy loves having Mommy home though! :)

Anyone Hiring??

So it is week 2 of unemployment and the anxiety has started to set in. I'm not freaking out yet, but it would be nice to get some bites on one of the 65 resumes I have sent out!! Don't get me wrong, I do have some significant leads, but I think I will be nervous until I am employed.

So what have I been doing otherwise you ask? Well, unbelievably I have been quite busy each day! Sue has been in town so we have been doing some sister bonding. I've also been prepping for the big move this weekend - Penske rental, Public Storage visit, groveling of friends and family to lend a helping hand. :) Moving SUCKS (just in case you didn't know this already)! And lucky for us, we get to do it twice in a short amount of time. First down to VA from NY and second when we finally buy a house and move out of my parent's basement! We are hoping that we will be settled in a new townhouse by the end of the summer (fingers crossed!!!)

Tomorrow is THE big exciting day for this week - I'm heading to Social Security to officially change my name!!!!!! I figured this is a good task to take care of while I have the time off - especially since I hear I will be in the SS office for a good portion of a day. We finally received our marriage license so I'm going to take care of the name change with SS, DMV and all the other lovely people that care that I am now a Mangiaracina. NUTTY!!

I could get used to this...

We are on day 3 of unemployment and I have to admit...I'm starting to get used to this being home thing. My days seem to fill up quickly - so much that I honestly don't know how I used to fit work in! :) But seriously, I am trying to live it up while I can because it will all be over soon enough.

The job hunt continues and so far so good. While I really wish and hope to be back with my friends at TIA, I need to be realistic and find something down here in DC. I have a few interviews lined up and I have lots of people down here who are looking out for me. I'm lucky enough to have the advantage of being picky and find a job that I will really enjoy doing. My Nimble Fitness boys are keeping me busy with some design work (thanks guys!!) and I'm exploring an opportunity in wedding planning which really gets me excited. I had such a blast planning our wedding that I'm thinking it could be a good thing to explore as a job. Who knows...the possibilities are ENDLESS!!

Ed and I are heading back to NYC on Friday night for some more packing over the weekend. It is Mommy's Day on Sunday so we are going to spend some time with his Mom and my Grandmother on Saturday and then my Mom on Sunday. What is really great is that Suzy Q. will be in VA for a week or so starting this Friday so I'm really psyched about spending some time with her.

Next project on my docket - Honeymoon scrapbook. The pictures are uploaded here for your viewing pleasure!!

Goodbye New York ~ Hello DC!

So in an effort to stay busy during my unemployment (I need a job - help!), I decided to continue with the "Being Mangiaracina" blog post-honeymoon to keep all you lovely people informed of our life as newlyweds. It's amazing...in the course of 1 month I went from being a fiance to a wife to a newlywed and obtained a new last name more ridiculous than my own!

As you all know, we had an amazing time in Mexico, but now we are on a new journey and that journey is called the "Move to Northern Virginia - Get Laura a job - Buy a house" journey. We are currently in the process of part 1: Move to Northern Virginia. We spent much of this weekend packing our apartment up and yesterday we hauled it down to good old Fairfax, VA. I have to say, we are very lucky that my parents are so welcoming because we have dumped a LOT of crap in their house already - and it's only the first trip! We head back up to NY this weekend for more packing and more hauling and then on May 15th it's UHaul-time.

We are gonna bunk up at good old 4510 Overcup Court for a bit A. because I don't have a job yet and B. because we have made a decision to actually look into buying a residence rather than renting one. The accomodations are wonderful although I could do without all wall photos reminding me of my many fashion mistakes in high school! Lucy is pleased - not only does she have a huge yard to run around in, but she has Grandpa around to feed her all the table scraps she wants! :)

So far Being Mangiaracina has been pretty darn good. :)

Day 11 - Adios Mexico

Today was a sad day as it was time to leave our home away from home and head back to New York. We started our morning with an early breakfast and some major packing. How is it that we were able to fit everything when going to Mexico and had a hard time coming home? The Mexican air must have expanded everything! :) We were on our way at noon and in a TGI Fridays at the airport by 1 pm. Our flight was uneventful which is always good. It was actually the first time we weren't together since the wedding - our late booking landed us separate seats! :(

We are home now and have a lot ahead of us in the next few weeks - and we are looking forward to every minute of it. I think Ed would agree that we had an AMAZING honeymoon. Yes...it wasn't what we planned and Yes...we had to scramble at the last moment to make it happen...but it was a great lesson in life and in our new marriage. Things are never perfect. Things get messy...and don't always go as planned...but when you have a great partner by your side and you can face it together...it makes it all worth it.

Here's to the next chapter - Salud!

Day 10 - Last Day in Paradise

We can't even believe that this was the last full day of our honeymoon - where does the time go! Seriously...when we are at work, the hours DRAG on, but when sitting by the pool sipping a Sea Breeze time moves at the speed of light!

This morning did not go as planned.

The Plan - sleep and be lazy until our champagne breakfast arrives at 9:30 am.

What actually happened: Out of control air conditioner making lawn mower type sounds wakes us up at 8:30 am.

So it was only 1 less hour of sleep...but I can tell you the sound was not good. We seriously thought someone was drilling a hole in the wall above our bed! Luckily the maintenance guy was at our room in a flash and the AC was fixed fairly quick...but the champagne breakfast did not happen. We got off our butts and headed to the morning buffet for eggs, toast and mimosas (of course!!!).

We thought that the day would be another wash out, but were pleased to see the sun make an appearance - just in time for our day at the resort's "lazy river". We found a lounge under a cabana (in case the looming clouds dropped rain), grabbed 2 blue floaties and were on our way. Now, the "lazy river" is just that...lazy. Well, not when we are in the pool. We decided it would be a perfect opportunity to be competitive and race! I don't think we participated in that much physical activity since we got here - well, outdoor activity that is. (again, sorry mom!) I'm not sure who won, but there were many onlookers who were both mildly pleased by the entertainment and mildly annoyed by the disturbance. :)

It was burgers for lunch and then back to the pool - this time for relaxing. The moment we sat down the clouds opened up and it started pouring down rain. Instead of hiding in the cabana, we figured, may as well hop in the pool! By the time we made our "lazy" lap, the sun was out - and boy did we catch some rays. We were so good ALL week but today we BURNED baby BURN! Needless to say we are resting now in anticipation of our last dinner here at the Excellence Resort. We are headed to Agave for some Mexican food and margaritas. And it's Circus Show tonight in the theater. We already saw it, but I am determined to get some video of the most AMAZING hula hooper I have ever seen. The Foundation girls will really appreciate it!!!

It's time to go home tomorrow which makes us sad, but we are so ready to start our life together as husband and wife in DC. There are so many things to look forward to - but we have to say we are so happy for the memories we have already started creating. :)