after months of planning, debating, coordinating and decision making, we were finally ready to pack up our cute little apartment on candlewick circle and hit the road for southern migration. it was one of those times in life where anticipation makes it feel like time is moving too slowly, but the sheer amount of work to be done makes you wish you could slow everything down just a bit!
i turned in my notice at both jobs and said my final farewell to MCE without much (okay, any) fan-fare. the night was easy and the shift passed quickly...which i've noticed tends to be the case when you know you'll never have to clock in somewhere again! at OSU, the departure was much harder, since i had made many good friends there and they were all very understanding, but sad to see me go. it was hardest to leave behind my friend shaun, who, despite our very different pasts, was like a sister to me and the closest friend i had. she was always able to make me laugh, and made working at OSU something to look forward to 4 days a week. my friend sue is the reason i "survived" my hardest months in ohio at all, because for every sad or home-sick story i had, she could one-up me with a moving story of her own, usually about living in north dakota....in the winter...with 2 small children. after her stories i was always laughing, and realized that i really didn't mind living in ohio at all, and it really wasn't that cold. after all, ohio living doesn't require you to leave your car plugged in or wear ski masks to the grocery store! on my last day at work, my fellow care managers surprised me with a fabulous pizza & salad dinner and a very tasty going-away cake. i will miss those gals!
once the goodbyes had been said, it was time to get to work...on packing! i did much better this time than a year ago, where i had not packed anything before the big move. this time, i had already packed up everything but the essentials by the time my dad, mom and jared flew into town to help with the move. they arrived on july 30th, and we spent the first couple days showing them around the great city of columbus, including a trip to german village, easton mall and tours of our respective work places. after catching up and finalizing our game plan, we got to packing and loading. and after actually acquiring a rental truck (long story...but don't try to reserve a truck from budget!), it took a solid day (nearly 10 hours) to load everything up into the u-haul except for our toothbrushes and a couple of blankets we kept out so we could sleep on the floor that night (oh, and the keurig to make coffee in the morning) needless to say, we were beat!
the next day was solid driving...mom and dad left early in the morning with the uhaul, with matt, jared and i staying behind to turn in the apartment keys and take care of a few last-minute logistics (who was lexi riding with, who was riding with who?). by about 9:30am, we were all on the road, waving goodbye to our life in ohio and the cool summer weather.
our travels took us south through kentucky, tennessee, and arkansas before we finally crossed the border into the lone star state somewhere around 2am. sadly, we still had about another 2 hours to drive before we made it safely to my parents house to sleep for the day! needless to say, by the time we arrived we stumbled into the house and promptly fell asleep...knowing full well that the next whole day would be spent unloading the truck :/
all in all, it was a great trip and i was thankful that there were no major problems and we all made it safely. i got to spend quality time in the car with my brother (who can't take a picture of a "welcome to ______" sign from a moving car to save his life), stop in the thriving metropolis of mumfordville, kentucky, find out that there is no where directly off the highway to get gas and food in memphis, tennessee, and find out from my parents that the roads in arkansas (when driving a 26' u-haul) are actually worse than the roads in ohio.
thank you to everyone who helped us with this move: physically, emotionally or otherwise!
