Our travel has begun its first stage, so it seems appropriate to get the blogging started now that things have calmed down a little. We were running really, really hard by the time our last hours in Idaho Falls came. Our last two or three days were a real struggle, and definitely a test of Joe's and my relationship.
My last day of work was Wednesday. I love my job, but it was also very exciting to leave it. I am young and have no kids nor mortgages. I should go now before I get tied down later. And I got this feeling that all of my coworkers were envious, but there are all sorts of ways to find joy in life. I am about to experience the joys of cultural exposure, new places, and adventure, but those joys come at the expense of other joys, like children, pets, a comfortable home, and a sense of stability. Both come at the price of the other.
Also Wednesday we drove my car to where it will be parked for the next year. It was sad to say goodbye to her! But I took out her battery and put rat poison on her floor.
Thursday we prepared for the big move. And Friday was the start of THE longest day I've had in a while. We were up early, packing up furniture and boxes to take to my parents' basement. We took a first load out, packed it into the basement, and trudged back to the apartment. On the way we picked up Dave so we could have him look through a few things to see what he wanted to borrow while we were away.
We packed more into Joe's truck and took Dave to work, dropping by my parents' place to put a few more things into the basement. On the way home, we stopped by Albertson's to get flowers for my grandmother.
Next we tested out the capacity of our travel packs just to make sure we knew exactly what we could fit in there, so we knew exactly what needed packed up and stored. We took a small load to a thrift store, an envelope to my uncle's house, and made our way to my grandma and grandpa's house for a lovely dinner.
We couldn't stay for long at my grandparents' house, but they wished us well, gave us a present, and said goodbye. Around the time we got back to our apartment, I was beginning to get worried about something I didn't want to mention to Joe; I hadn't seen my wallet since I used it at Albertson's. Due to a high irritability level because of the stress, I was afraid to tell Joe about it. So I kept it to myself for a while.
The snow had started falling, and it was falling fast. We were piling furniture and boxes in the back end, making stressful choices about what could be put in the bed of the truck and potentially wet, and what HAD TO be put in the cab. The cab got full very quickly!
We loaded the last of it much later than we expected to (we were pretty behind) and headed to the coworker's house. Driving down the road way under the speed limit in the dark of night and during a blizzard, I finally told Joe about the wallet and my fears. There was nothing we could do but wait until unloading to look through a few boxes.
We lost some cargo. Not until we turned off the road did we realize we had lost it and had to go back. Here we were in the middle of a snowstorm, dodging cars in the dark, and picking up what had fallen out. Joe saw something on the road, picked it up, and then realized it was a dead bird.
Once again, we got in the truck and took off on slick roads. Once we got to Justin's house, we started RACING wet items into the basement. My friend Leah showed up to help, but made it only for the last trip to the basement. It was still great to see her and it made me happy to hear her earnest congratulations on our engagement.
We headed back to our apartment after saying thanks and goodbye, as well as a "we-might-see-you-early-tomorrow-morning-when-we-go-through-all-our-stuff-again-looking-for-the-dang-wallet." We drove to all the locations we had visited after the Albertson's flower mission where I had used my wallet last. We trudged through the 6 new inches of snow at Albertson's, got let into the closed store to ask the manager if he had any wallets turned in, trudged through 6 new inches of snow at the thrift store, my uncle's house, my grandparents' house and our apartment. No dice.
I was freaking out and frustrated. Joe was very sweet about the whole thing and comforted me when I cried. We decided sleep would be better than staying up and worrying about it, since there wasn't much else we could do that late at night. We tested out our new sleeping bags in the apartment.
The next morning, we modified our plans, waking up my grandparents way too early, in order to borrow their car. Joe dropped me off and made his way to Ashton to drop off my adorable little hamster June, finish up some business deals, and grab his dad so his dad could take Joe's truck back to Ashton to use during the winter months. I got in the car dreading the slick drive out to Justin's house, with the opposing need for getting there as fast as possible and the need to drive slow enough to not crash my grandparents' car and die. Luckily I was able to drive the distance carefully and somewhat quickly.
With a little help from Justin, we looked through all of the boxes to no avail, but at least we were assured that the wallet wasn't there. Justin went completely above and beyond by helping me. He plowed his drive so we could get in, he helped us race things to the basement late in the night, and then he helped look through everything in search of a damn wallet. Our last days were sooooo stressful, but Justin was a magician at helping ease the stress. I wouldn't blame him if he burnt everything we stored in his basement as penance. I drove back and checked with Albertson's, in the Albertson's parking lot (my theory is the HUGE pile of snow is new home to my wallet), checked with the thrift store and looked around their parking lot, and finally checked in the parking lot of the apartment building. No wallet.
I gave up on the wallet and, feeling totally defeated, started pulling out the last of the stuff in the apartment and beginning to clean. Joe called and said to meet him at my grandparents' apartment to return the car. I emptied the fridge in a mad dash and took everything to my poor, confused grandparents. I returned the keys and we rushed out of there. We gave ourselves 20 minutes to clean as much of the apartment as we could.
Enlisting a very helpful Bill Baxter was such a huge help. With Joe wiping out the fridge and freezer and Mr. B vacuuming as fast as he could, I speed-cleaned the bathroom and swept the floors. At the end of 20 minutes, we had to give up on cleaning and clear out. Thanks to the help, we got the basic cleaning done.
Then it was off to drop of cleaning supplies to Dave and picking him up in time to make it to the shuttle. We made it to the pick-up point just one minute before when we thought we were supposed to be there. We said goodbye to Mr. B and moved into the waiting area, only to learn that we weren't supposed to be there for another 40 minutes. Dangit. I had remembered the time of the shuttle wrong, leaving us to do only a partial cleaning job at the apartment. But thank goodness I had thought it was earlier than it really was, rather than later, which would have made us miss it.
Waiting for the bus I called my mom to ask her to cancel credit cards, debit cards, and checks that went missing in my wallet. She collected some information for me and started to make the calls. Thanks to my parents, everything was cancelled successfully, my cards were re-ordered, and everything was in order. No one even had a chance to spend my money if it had been found because everything was shut down very quickly. My parents were life-savers.
The shuttle was long and late, but we eventually made it to Sandy, Utah and were picked up my Joe's brother Stevan. Stevan and his wife Joelle hosted us for a night and we got to see their kids Hannah, Rex, and Ben (who of course got into tickle wars and boxing matches with their uncle Joe). We also got to see Joe's sister Jenifer, her husband Ken, their daughters Cathryn, Rachel, and Andrea. The next morning Stevan very kindly took us to the airport, where we slowly checked in (my checked bag was 44 pounds, yikes!), went through security, and made it to our gate after a small breakfast.
The flight was uneventful, except for the cutie Dave sat next to and chatted up. We gave him a hard time about not getting her number.
The first day we went for a beach walk. Calv came in the next morning, so we picked him up. The morning after that was my parents' 30 year wedding anniversary, and we celebrated out on the sailboat 'Mariah' captained by dad from the Dana Point Harbor. We went with one of my parents' friends Linda, and her two sons who were home for the holidays. There were moments right at the beginning where the boat was tipped far enough us newbies were worried about the whole thing tipping over--it felt like it was almost completely sideways! We were informed that this was quite normal, but that it was an unusually good wind day.
Being out at sea can wipe a person out, so we recovered with a little Chinese food that night.
The next morning we had breakfast around the table, only to realize when we collected our plates from the table that there was a Christmas gift of money underneath of them from my parents! It was surprising and very sweet. :)
We went shopping down at the Del Mar shopping street, followed by ice cream and another beach walk. Then we came home to our traditional Spicy Seafood Stew Christmas Eve dinner, complete with mom's yummy homemade bread. There was an excess of silly conversation during dinner.
Now the boys are out shopping with mom and the three of us (dad, Joe, and myself) are catching up on various things (looking at sailboats, listening to music, and writing a blog, respectively). I am thankful to have let go of the wallet stress, moving stress, and transportation stress. It is only relaxation from now until January 7th when our flight leaves L.A. for Fiji!
I'm excited for Christmas and it is so much fun that we get to all be together for it. It's an amazing treat to bring Joe into the picture as well. My whole family adores him and it means so much to me.
Stay warm wherever you are! I hope your Christmases are extra bright and cheery! No idea when I will write again, so no promises. :)
Merry Christmas! -Emily
