5

[elSicomoro]

2004 will be known as "The Year of the Fives" in Sycamoreland. A lot of big things happened for me in 1999, and it's hard to believe it's been 5 years since they occurred.

And the big events were:

--January 10: Graduated from college
--April 1: Started dating Rho
--August 15: Packed up a U-Haul truck and headed for Washington, DC
--September 25: Got my first apartment
--October 8: Rho moved in

Now that I think about it more, that was a really rough year overall. I couldn't find a real job in St. Louis or Chicago to save my soul. Mimi and I broke up a month before I started dating Rho. My mom and I were at each other's throats regularly, then she freaked out when I decided to move east. Rho and I scoured DC for a month looking for an apartment, making 52 calls, seeing and applying for 2 apartments and finally getting into one. The guy I stayed with when I first moved out here freaked out after I had been at his place for 3 weeks...we've only spoken twice since I left. And Rho and I had to get used to living with each other...we're still working on that.

But it was a hell of a learning experience. I thought I was pretty seasoned on the real world already, but found out that I wasn't. Like a big dummy, I thought companies would fall all over me after I graduated from college...I was so naive. I lived fairly spontaneously during college, and I found out that it doesn't always work well in the real world. It left me frustrated and angry at times, but it left me wiser, and better able to handle the hell that was our first 2 years and change in Philadelphia.

In the end, I got off easy...some people get it so much worse. Enough of that shit though...I have to figure out what the hell I'm gonna get Rho as an anniversary gift.