Getting Here

We made it. After a ridiculous day of packing and 3 long days, I'm in Albuquerque for good.

The past few days have re-emphasized to me how important family and friends are. The move didn't go nearly as smoothly as I had hoped for. Between packing stuff and cleaning the house (which by the way, was a daylong task in itself), we didn't get on the road until after midnight, and didn't find a place to land until at least 4am. I don't know what would have happened if Lauren and Jon hadn't come over. They are wonderful, and did so much to help, despite the fact that they weren't the ones moving out of the house. Genuine friends, and I'll need to find a way to repay them.

Part of what made packing so difficult was the fact that a lot of things in the house weren't mine OR Matt's, yet we still had to deal with it. I'm happy to say, we left the house looking very good, provided you ignore the pile of trash out back with will hopefully be taken care of on Friday when the garbage is picked up. The bathroom and kitchen were scrubbed once all the stuff was gone, and all the floors mopped. And it was a TON of work.

The following day, Sunday, we made it somewhere into Ohio when I discovered that one of the tire straps on the tow dolly had broken. We lost 3+ hours trying to get that fixed, but ended up with a Jerry rigged some sort of thing that did not work. The guy Pensky called for us tried to help, but ultimately we needed a more permanent solution. Monday we stopped in St. Louis and had the straps replaced: I think they we a bit surprised at the poor state of the equipment that we were given back in State College. The folks in St. Louis were awesome; however, do not under any circumstances rent equipment from the Texaco on North Atherton. Unless, of course, you want to be held up by technical problems every mile of your trip. In addition to the straps being shoddy, the door on the van is a little messed up, and I can't for the life of me close it on my own once it is open. That didn't get fixed, but at least Matt seems to be able to get it shut.

Today was pretty much the only day that went according to plan. We got in a little after 6, and the apartment is awesome and in great shape. The previous tenant had painted one of the walls in the living room green, and the landlord left it that way like we hoped he would. I only spent a few minutes inside when I visited a month ago, and I only vaguely remembered what the place was like. We have a swamp cooler which seems to work fairly well, a gas stove, garbage disposal, dish washer, proper ventilation above the stove and in the bathroom, easy to clean floors, and laundry on the property. Everything is very clean, no holes in the walls, no peeling paint, nothing that turned me off like in the house on Walnut St.!

The guinea pig is out of the truck, and I think he's happy to be here, at least he isn't being jostled around anymore. I am excited to get stuff out of the truck and into the apartment tomorrow, and finally have a comfortable home again. I've been living in controlled choas for the past month, and it was starting to take a toll on my patience.

Now, to bed. I'm exhausted!