The last two months has been absolutely insane. I put in my notice for May 25th to start a new job a little over 1,600 miles away on June 25th – so tomorrow!
I had some incredible help with packing or I would have never gotten my stuff moved and it’s pretty miraculous even as it was. I had a lot of tight, staggered deadlines that made all the difference. The listing pictures for my house turned out amazing and you of course can’t see all the things we shifted from room to room to get those. 🙂 I had 3 shipping containers full of stuff in addition to tossing probably the equivalent of half of one of them.
My mom said, “I don’t think anyone can fathom just how much time you’ve had to spend on schoolwork while we should have been packing.”This is pretty true, in fact the last thing I had set up was my full desktop computer on the table upstairs to submit capstone at 2 am. After that I finished the drylok painting in the basement and got about 3-4 hours of sleep before finishing up yard work and taking off for Rapid City. I never thought a road trip would be relaxing but after two weeks of alternating between sitting at my desk programming and being on my feet moving/packing it really was. We took a slightly longer route because I didn’t like the roads the other way and so that I was able to see a couple of my best friends from my first college degree. I hadn’t seen them in 3 years! We stayed there pretty late the next day, so we only made it as far as Casper, Wyoming. I do not recommend the Ramada there ever ever ever ever. We stopped earlier than planned so I’d have time to make my capstone poster – and there was no wifi. Rue escaped the car and hid under the truck next to me and I couldn’t find her. It was overall a horrifying experience and I ended up sitting in a very warm “business center” that was like a large closet with windows to make our entire poster – but I got it done!
I may never forget that our capstone grade came through as I was driving down I-80 as close to Great Salt Lake as possible. 😀 All I saw was “it’s a bummer about the point ded…” and I had to wait until we stopped to see what was going on. We made it as far as Elko, NV that night. Rue was a champ throughout the whole trip aside from her escapade in the parking lot – sleeping all day in the car, pretty chill in the hotel rooms, etc. Not this night. No, when I left her food in the car she decided she was inconsolably hungry at 3 am. She tried to hide under the bed when it was time to go but she didn’t fit, so she was just half under the bedskirt.
We made it to Folsom early enough for me to actually get into my apartment that afternoon and went over to a friend’s to relax (and sit in their hot tub, of course). I found out the next morning that the movers I’d been talking to for days couldn’t actually fit me into their schedule and had to find someone immediately for the next day. I was not impressed with who I ended up with – I am unsure how nothing (so far) has been broken. There was a point where they had thrown a bunch of stuff in one of my comforters and used it as a sling to carry things upstairs and they strapped my rather expensive mattress to the top of a car. I nearly lost it, but I didn’t say a word because I didn’t have much of a choice at that point. Everything got in after about 3-4 hours of them hauling it across the complex because they hadn’t bothered to bring the truck.
I managed to find time to unpack about 15 boxes and buy a table and a futon before heading off to Portland for graduation. Graduation in Corvallis was hot, but I’m glad I went and it’s pretty neat to get your real diploma at the ceremony. I was able to get some great pictures of the rose garden on Sunday before meeting up with some of my favorite classmates/alumni from Slack. 🙂 I went to the career showcase on Monday to present our capstone poster and it was a little awkward knowing I was starting a new job this week and was definitely not looking for a different job! However, I did gain some new insights about a few of the companies that I can pass along to my friends when they’re looking. I also got to experience the infamous Tasty n Alder for brunch on Tuesday before heading back home. Great food and great company. 😀
Since I’ve been back here, I’ve unpacked just the essentials so I could relax after the whirlwind I’ve just been through and it’s still taken until today for the exhaustion to fully catch up with me. Rue has been slowly adjusting to a more PST-friendly feeding schedule this week as well. I got to sleep in until 6:30 this morning and she wasn’t crying yet, so I fed her and went back to bed for two hours. That would’ve been unheard of earlier this week. 🙂 I just hope she does ok tomorrow while I’m gone at work!