The Journey Here

Or ”the world’s longest move ever” as we have been calling it! R is on his way here and he, along with the fabulous Aunt M, should be here sometime tonight. Method of transport? A 22 foot long diesel Penske truck with a car tow. Nice, right? Especially for an almost 1000 mile journey ending with a drive up a mountain. My journey here was relatively easy: a plane ride and collecting a few boxes we shipped here. R has been the trooper of this duo and really deserves a shout out (and my undying gratitude) as I abandoned him in the never ending move to come to Flagstaff earlier in the month to start my training. As referenced in my previous post, residence life departments provide long, intensive training to prepare their staff. This meant it was impossible for me to slip away for the 4 -5 days it would have taken for me to travel there, help load the truck, drive for two days and unload the truck. So, enter students extraordinaire, B and B, who helped R load the truck Tuesday night for an amount of money much smaller than they deserved, and Aunt M who agreed to embark on this journey and help husband keep his sanity intact along the way!

But driving our stuff 1000 miles isn’t why it is the world’s longest move. It is the world’s longest move because we have been moving since the beginning of May. Yes, you read that right. May. Beginning. Yes, it is now the end of July. You do the math. See, we had to be out of our previous apartment by May 30, and our new space in Flagstaff would not be available until about July 8, oh, and Robert’s work contract went until July 19. Can you start to see the beginning of the many dilemmas we were facing? After many half-serious jokes on my part about living temporarily in a cardboard box, RLSH very kindly agreed to continue providing me with a paycheck and us with a roof over our head, but it just couldn’t be in Boaz Hall. Okay, great. So in the midst of studying for finals and closing my building, I also started packing and moving bit by bit to storage. The aforementioned new roof over our head was a small furnished graduate apartment which meant that the bulk of our belongings needed some place else to go.

Enter AMS’s mom van. Yay mom van! We made countless journeys in the mom van to ferry our many belongings (even after ruthless donating and throwing out many items) to storage. Then the fun of figuring out how to make it all fit in storage began. I am seriously not exaggerating when I tell you that we pulled the bulk of the items out and rearranged a minimum of 15 times to make it all fit (in a non-air conditioned storage building with temperatures typically in the 90’s or higher). We sweated a lot. We also realized that we would need a second storage unit (yay, spending more money), which thankfully we only rearranged once at the beginning of July. Other fun expenses? We went through at least 6 rolls of packing tape and more yards of bubble wrap than I care to think about, and that stuff ain’t cheap! Luckily, boxes were not something we had to purchase or seek out. We had pack ratted quite a few from previous moves and I pounced on some brand new ones that students hadn’t used and left behind after move out.

So, that brings us to the end of May, right? At that point, after multiple bruises, a smushed foot, a few tears and temper flares, we moved some “essential” items as well as those that we just couldn’t deal with anymore to our temporary space. For a month, we ignored the fact that we still had some more packing and organizing to do, but then it was down to a week or two before I was destined to head to Flagstaff and we had to face the reality of dealing with the remainder of our stuff. As tempting as it was, throwing it out the window was just not an option. So, more packing and more AMS mom van journeys to storage, and more rearranging and panics of how the heck are we going to make this all fit? Miraculously, we did, and then I left husband for Flagstaff.

So it pretty much ended for me at that point, at least until husband and stuff arrives later today. For poor R, it has continued. He had to collect the last few random items from the Hawk apartment, take them to Aunt M’s, sort through them before she returned home from vacation, and find places for them in storage or possibly the car. Then Tuesday night, he spent over 4 hours loading the truck; Wednesday morning, putting the last few items from Aunt M’s in the car or truck and then started his journey here. I have a Fat Tire Ale waiting for him when he gets here. It’s not much in the way of expressing my appreciation, but it is a start! I have also promised a trip to a local burger restaurant that is supposed to be amazing. And I don’t EVEN want to start thinking about the unpacking process just yet! Eventually, we will settle in and the world’s longest move will be over, right?