Moving Story

Hello!

Welcome back!

It's been a quiet couple months on my blog.  Not without good reason though.  To sum things up: have a new job in Virginia, moved there, ran a marathon.

Bloggers aren't really around to sum things up though.  So here's the longer version...

Before the Akron marathon recap, I last left you with news of a new job, two states away, in Richmond, Virginia.  A week after getting offered the job my father-in-law and myself took a one day road trip to find a place to live...

But before all that, the wifey and I did some research online, found a place, filled out an application, and paid them to hold a unit.  Soon after we took those steps we found an apartment review site.  The past tenants did not give it a glorious review.  D'oh.  We went back online to scour all the townhomes and apartments that Richmond had to offer.  Searching for that diamond in the rough.  Many stressful days of thinking we found a place, only to find that no one has enjoyed living there.  Aimee alerted me to a place that had great reviews and was only ten dollars more than what we'd pay at the location that we already applied to.  She asked me if I wanted to see the reviews.  I did not.  The search had gone on long enough.  If it was good enough for her it was more than good enough for me.

Which brings us back to the trip.  In an 8 hour drive we didn't have much silence (may have had one too many caffeinated beverages).  It was a quality drive down.  I was driving down and he would be driving back (he drove to the West Virginia line and I took back over (Thank youuuuuuu Starbucks!!)).  We arrived at the newest place we liked and they gave us a tour.  Bingo!  The townhouse was a go.  So for those who are playing along at home, here's a recap: 8 hour drive to look at 1 townhouse for about 20 minutes...

One trip to Applebee's and Wal Mart and we were back on the road.  Ohio bound!

Thursday came and it was time to load the truck.  My new position would be starting the upcoming Monday (between the 14th and 19th I didn't run once).  Thanks to my friends Adam, Brian, Derek, Austin, and Jermaine chipping in it took us no time to pack the truck.  Due to the size of the truck we had to get rid of our love-seat and an extra dresser.

All held by a little blue rope.  Nothing moved!

The following morning (at 3:30 AM) I drove the truck, all of our "treasures", and our towed car down to Virginia.  Since my wife can't drive on the highway she opted to stay with the girls at her parents for the week.  The trip down was uneventful.  There was no CD player or tape deck (to use my iPod tape plug in) so I had some good quiet time and time flipping through country stations trying to find good music.

Driving the hills of WV and VA is nothing short of beautiful.. Just don't stop in WV...

I arrived in VA and I had the task of unloading the truck by my lonesome.  Leading up to this moment I told myself it wouldn't be too bad.  I mean, I had a dolly.  I can do this.  Merrrrrrp.

Unloading that truck suuuuuucked.  Early in the unloading I texted my wifey and told her I didn't want to do it.  The thought of torching everything and driving to Ohio had crossed my mind.  The dressers were towards the back, and ended up being the toughest part of the move.  I couldn't get them with the dolly so I managed to get them upstairs.  Not of my own strength.  I hadn't eaten much on the drive.  I dragged the heaviest of the two dressers up the stairs one stair at a time.  Towards the top of the stairs I was getting confident.  Overly confident.  "I can move it up two stairs!".  Bad move.  I cleared the first and part way through the second I lost the strength.  It started to slip.  I envisioned the entire dresser crashing to the floor and into hundreds of pieces.  Adrenaline kicked in and I managed to save it at the last second.  Think of Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger.  My hope is that you haven't seen that movie to get the reference...

Saving that dresser and putting it in our room pumped me up.  After that there's nothing much to report.

Only goal was getting the stuff off the truck.  Took me a while to get the place livable

That night I went to BW3 and ate like a king.  An exhausted king.  The only items I unpacked that night were the bed comforter and pillows.

Saturday I did some more unpacking and dropped off the moving truck.  The 20 something leasing office worker, Logan, followed me to the drop off site and drove me back (where were ya when I was unpacking?!?)  Apart from the brief convo with Logan I hadn't had much human interaction over the weekend.  I was already drained from unloading and not talking to people made it worse.  I sat around thinking about all the stuff I had to do.

Sunday I made my way to a local church.  A couple of our friends (who live a couple hours away near Norfolk, VA) told us that their church had a satellite campus in Richmond.  I imagined a big thousand person congregation.  When I walked in I quickly saw that I was way off base.  Everyone was uber friendly.  I stuck out like an NBA all star at a lollipop guild meeting.  Speaking with human beings, who were not myself, put me on cloud nine.  Side note: Aimee, the girls, and I went back to Wave RVA this morning and it was still good.  People had remembered me and I even remembered a few of their names.  Score!

There isn't much else to this story.  I went to work the week that followed and ran a marathon that Saturday.  My family and I are now in Richmond.  Everyone has been sick at one point or another this week (except me) but we're still excited for the future.  We also have a new TV.  So that's something.

Now onto the running portion of my blog.  I haven't run since the marathon!!  I'm planning on getting out there to start the week off right.

Next post I'll go into the final moving related post.  That one will be about the going away party that followed the marathon.  I'll also hopefully have some current news about running I've done in the great state of Virginia!

Till next time!