The Village (not the Shyamalan one)

Despite some stressors, and the fact that I visited a place called "The Village", today was not a horror movie. Mostly.

First of all, today I had my board exams. AKA the test that I have to pass to get my music therapy licence so that, you know, I can legally keep my job and be a music therapist and all that. It was a doozy of a test, despite the fact that it was all very familiar material. Lots and lots of questions with multiple potentially correct answers.

But I passed! And, with one less thing to worry about in my currently very crazy life (Stress? Stress? I'm not stressed, what made you think I was stressed? I have nothing to be stressed out about. Ha. Ha. Ha... Excuse me while I go throw up) I decided that it was worth celebrating. Since I had to take my test all the way out in Meridian anyway, I thought I'd go check out the taco place my roommate had mentioned to me in The Village ...at Meridian.

I'd noticed the outside before while driving between appointments, mainly because it's got an anachronistically old-world European charm (at least to my admittedly untrained eye), but this was my first time actually visiting.

Basically, it's a big fancy mall. Now, understand, malls have never been my wheelhouse, but I do have a bit of a fascination with outdoor malls. And this one really is quite lovely; the flower gardens alone are worth a visit if you're in the area:

And there are some very pretty buildings:

In the center is an area with lots of nice seating, a performing stage, and some mini Bellagio-type fountains.

They sync up with the music that's played throughout the area.

Also, statues of butterflies turning into books and vice versa:

Anyway, I got my taco:

And then I took some time to go exploring. I was actually pretty excited to have one of the kinds of adventures that I happen to instead of that happen to me this week.

I fell in love a little bit with this fancy stationary store:

The reflection kind of spoils this, but the store is called "Paperie + Pen" and behind that is a wedding dress made of paper.

I might need this notebook...

I had also heard that there was a pretty cool candy store here, so I took a look.

The outside:

Did not adequately prepare me for the inside:

AGGH! My EYES! My cellphone camera can not do justice to the neons.

My middle school self would have loved it but I found it a little overstimulating. They do have an excellent selection if you're into gummy candy, but I didn't end up buying anything.

All in all, I had a very pleasant time wandering around at the village.

Perhaps a little too pleasant. 

You see, as I stepped out of one shop with a frozen yogurt in hand, I glanced down at my cell phone to realize that I only had forty-five minutes until my next work appointment. Barely enough time to run to my erstwhile apartment for my guitar and then get there on time.

Note, also, that this session is with a client that I still haven't officially added to my caseload yet. I'm supposed to meet him once or twice with his previous music therapist first. But last time, I got lost and ended up not arriving until the last fifteen minutes of the appointment. So you can understand how I felt stressed when it looked like I was just a hair's breadth from being late. Again.

And there was much skedaddling.

Well, that was the intent, anyway. But I got stuck in some nasty rush hour traffic. And then there was a problem with the elevator, which made me regret my guess that the elevator might be a few seconds faster than the stairs. (But also left me dreaming with some fondness for the day not long from now when I will live somewhere that isn't on the fourth floor). Then, on my way back into the car, I somehow managed to set off the alarm. 

Cue five minutes of me trying to figure out how to make the sound stop and get the lights to stop flashing in my brand new car that I am still figuring out what all the buttons do. And I don't have an owner's manual because it's a used car.

I texted the other music therapist to let her know I was going to be late (because at this point I was) and alluded to some car problems. Then I took off, rushing as fast as was legally permissible-- right into the very worst of Boise's rush hour traffic. Inching down Chinden Boulevard, I watched the estimated arrival time on my GPS unit go from "a little bit late" to "a lot bit late" to "Wow, this family is going to hate me and not want me to work with their child", to "Wow, I kind of hate me and probably shouldn't work with their child", to "Yeah, no, at this rate I'll miss the entire session." So I gave up and turned around to go back to my apartment. And promptly got lost. In a familiar neighborhood.

Lessons learned:

1) Pay attention to the time while going on adventures.

2) I'm kind of an idiot

3) I opened this up with the wrong kind of village references.

Anyway, tomorrow I dive into the legwork part of apartment hunting, so that's where the real horror story begins.

Don't believe me? Check out this map I poked lots of holes into just so I could show you how many places I'm going tomorrow.