And So It Begins...

Hello out there to all of you! I am not exactly sure how I should begin this, so I guess I will do so by introducing myself. My name is Lindsey Abel and I am a 22 year old LDS gal from a small town in Northern California trying to adjust to city life in Reno, Nevada. I grew up living in quiet houses with property, raising lambs and pigs and playing in fruit trees and creeks. I now reside in a downstairs apartment near busy downtown streets, casinos, a hospital and a freeway. I work at an ice cream shop and also at a department store. I've been living here for a little over a year now, and I've learned quite a bit about city life.

• Apartment walls are thin, so if you want to get any sleep without hearing your surrounding neighbors' maniacal laugh or them doing "the big wiggle" you better put those earplugs or headphones in. (I recommend headphones)
• Apartments near downtown have 3 locks on the doors and it's still recommended you use a door-jam type device at night :S
• Sometimes streets smell like sewage (especially in the middle of town) and many enclosed stairways smell like cigarettes or urine (depending on how hot or cold the weather is).
• It's not uncommon to see a large group of drag queens in extravagant evening gowns posing in the middle of the street in the middle of the day.
• Construction in NEVER ENDING. I am thoroughly convinced they tear up streets and parking lots simply to have something to do... or I suppose to create more jobs...
• Walking downtown makes you feel as though you are living in an 80's movie. A majority of the time I'm down there I half expect Ferris Beuller to roll by on a parade float.

*Sigh* It's definitely an adjustment, but I think I am getting the hang of things. I miss my beautiful California, but for now I make the best of my life here in Nevada. The lifestyles of where I am from and where I am now are very different. I've traded the hippies living in the forest to the homeless living on the streets, and the trees, grass and Victorian homes for concrete and casinos. Crickets have been replaced by sirens and loud Hip Hop music blasting out of tricked out Honda Civics with neon colored rims and drivers wearing "stunna' shades". 

This will be an interesting and very worth-while journey.....