If you’ve been confused about where exactly I live, you are not alone. Since September of 2012 I have had a fairly nomadic lifestyle. While it’s true I have a small house in Pennsylvania and a Post Office Box in Maryland, I’ve not really had a fixed address, a place to commune with my stuff as it were.
That changed this month.
So here’s what happened. Up until September of 2012, I was happily living in Omaha, Nebraska, a fabulous city in a fabulous state. But things being what they were some family/personal stuff came up and I ended up moving back to where my parents were in Pennsylvania. Now Penn isn’t a terrible state, but it’s not really my cup of tea so it probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that house or no house I escaped within 6 months. Where did I go? I headed south, to the sunny shores of Florida. Season Affective Disorder is a real thing ladies and gentlemen and it can make even the brightest among us a little insane. That’s all I’m going to say about that. Anyway, I arrived in Florida for the start of the awful season, when you can almost melt into the parking lot should you dare cross it during the middle of the day; I stayed there for another 6 months. Adventures were had, good times were shared, but when it was time to go, I went.
I returned to the Washington, DC area. I grew up here, I know the area, and what was supposed to be a temporary stop, in which I would make some money substitute teaching while I figured out my next destination has turned into a semi permanent thing as I got hired as a full time teacher at a school I rather like. Anyway, constant adventuring is good for the soul and good for the spirit, but it turns out fairly bad for the budget. So I spent a year kind of recovering from my slap dash experiences and now I’ve moved into my own place in Maryland. This is an exciting time for me. I do have my own distinctive uh. style. And while I think I’ve proven conclusively that you can live without the stuff that ties you down, I don’t really want to anymore. So I needed my stuff. Which is where this tale begins.
So I signed a lease on the apartment on December 2, but on December 3 I was flying out to watch EFT1 (as previously mentioned, I think, in passing) and I didn’t get back until the 7th. Then the next two weeks were filled with progress notes, and winter festival type things at school, and so I wasn’t actually able to move until the weekend of December 20. YAY CHRISTMAS MOVING. Now if you are familiar with the great state of Pennsylvania you can probably already guess why I was suddenly nervous. If you aren’t, allow me to share. Pennsylvania is a pretty mountainous state. During the summer and fall it is glorious, but during the winter, those windy, deserted roads with terrible cell service are pretty treacherous. Now my moving date had been pushed into… the white months. It’s the snow. The snow which falls and blankets anything. Winter is coming and it seems to come to Pennsylvania first. And sure enough when I checked the weather… 80% chance of snow. WELL CRAP.
I moved moving days but the snow seemed to chase me. It was going to snow on my moving day, I was definitely going to die on a mountain in Pennsylvania, the state had gotten me at last. But, I mean, I still was going to do it. It was moving time, baby. Electing to come on this adventure were two of my #spacesisters, Charissa and Brandi. Thanks y’all. I can’t believe you signed up for this.
ANYWAY. We drove up Saturday. My parents happen to have a bed and breakfast in the town my house is in so accommodations were sorted. We arrived in Johnstown, and it was the average sort of fun. We checked into the BnB, drove over to my house, got snackies at Sheetz, tried to break into a caboose.
No really, we did.
Then we drove around and discussed the ways in which the town reminded us of District 12.
See the Hob? Do you see it? It’s right there, Katniss.
Finally Charissa arrived, and we went and got dinner. Then we watched the Hobbit. And I might have cried a lot.
The next day was truck/movers day. And getting the truck went surprisingly well.
Everything was fine actually, until I got within about 20 minutes of my house, about 25 minutes before the movers were supposed to show. Then I got a phone call.
Not on this phone.
And this is what they said. It was the movers. Because of course it was, they had gotten a job 3 hours away from my house and would only come load my stuff if I would pay them a butt-ton of money. I had a written price quote from them but now they were changing it. So I said to them “You can’t do this, we have our agreement in writing.” And this is what the guy said. “Yeah, but you have to move in like 20 minutes. What are you going to do?”
So anyway, I was probably fairly glowing at that moment, Charissa said I migggghhhht have driven slightly off the road. What I did was give him some fairly detailed pointers on what he should do with himself in his private time, perhaps with his mother. Anyway, so he was then like “well we will see you on Tuesday for the unload!” At which point I started laughing maniacally and asked him why he would think I’d ever want him near me.
Anyway, so we pull up at my house and I explain the situation to my friends. Who had signed up to come and drive and watch and now… Well here’s the thing. I’m okay with facing the consequences of my temper. My temper and I have been together for a very long time and the fact is that we are good together. I don’t like making my friends share my fate though.
But Brandi and Charissa saddled up anyway, and we got that truck freaking loaded. Girl power everyone!
Angels
Finally, tired, dirty, covered in spiders, I was ready to head to my new home. And shock of all shock, the weather, the thing I had been WORRIED about…. was great!
Afterwards we rode the incline (the world’s steepest vehicular incline!) to get some dinner.
WHEEEEEE
And a good time was had by all.
Martini flights. Who knew?
And then we came back to party all night… and promptly fell asleep after single glasses of wine. #OldPeopleProblems
The rest of the move was pretty anticlimactic. The threatened snow never showed, and over breakfast the next morning I hired new movers to unload my crap in MD. They turned out to be super competent and efficient and fabulous so if anyone needs movers in the DC area I used iMoversUSA which I’m pretty sure is one of those companies that facilitates movers connecting with people, but they were amazing and also holy crap I appreciated it.
I returned the truck and I’ve been kind of puttering around my house getting things organized ever since. I have confidence I will be fully moved by the time school starts which is good because once school starts I won’t have time for anything else. #TeacherProblems
As much as I’m loving having my place again, here’s the real take away from this tale. Johnstown could have ended pretty badly.
*Insert menacing music here*
What I’ve found in life is that sometimes it’s not the adventure you are having, it is the people you are having the adventure with. I am always 125% up for the adventure, but the fact was that this would have been a miserable move without my friends. With them, I actually had a fantastic time, spiders and all.
That more than anything is the thing that keeps me from pulling the trigger on another move. I have always been about the adventure, and the seeing new things, but.
Me too, John.
Call it end of the year reflection, call it finding a crap load of dead spiders in the boxes, call it whatever you want, but
Moving really made me appreciate the friends I’ve got all over again.
MisAdventure Writes 