Email to Kate.

hey kate!

we haven't spoken since that fateful bus ride back to Cincinnati a couple weeks ago now, so it's time for an update.

Update:

Moving. So many "fun" things happened here. U-haul tried to give us a 26 foot truck (which i would be driving through Cincinnati and Chicago) instead of the 17 foot one we had reserved. This was at 8 a.m. in the morning, and i was literally yelling at tim in the u-haul parking lot: "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO? I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!" why, why was i yelling? because i didn't realize just how long 26 feet was. it was about the size of a RV camper crossed with an elephant. like, i didn't even want to climb into the drivers seat. in the end, tim had to stare down the u-haul guy and finally he was like, "um, well, i do have a 17 foot truck on the lot i guess you can have." oh, well THANK YOU. and while tim handled all the machismo stuff, i think my desperate screams helped somewhat.

Second: three friends helped us move and it was AWESOME. we never could have done it without them. so i took them out for indian food after we all enjoyed cool showers.

Third:...oh this is fun. I got up at 6:30 a.m. to leave town, and the driver's side mirror on the truck was unable to hold itself up. so before i hit indianapolis, i bought a role of duct tape and plastered that thing together. After hitting about 20 consecutive bumps anywhere on my drive that day, i would have to role down the window and punch the mirror on the top so it would angle the right direction, but all in all i felt much more safe.

Fourth: then i got through indianapolis and stopped for gas. Sure, hmm...it's raining, i'll just hop out, use my atm card...hmmm...where is that atm card...and where is my license....oh. no. they were both back in cincinnati, resting in my camera case which i had forgotten. Thankfully, i had taken out $150 cash to pay the movers with, and that got me through.

Five: CATS! Basically, the cats were pretty awesome and i was pretty thankful for the company. A little yowling was okay. I got lost on a detour and ended up driving through some suburbs and sneaking through the city limits without paying tolls. Fun! Although it took two hours. Whatev. Finally got to Chicago, made it through several storms and about 20 lane changes, and parked right in front of my new living quarters. The movers (Bob's Muscle for Hire) showed up about 30 minutes later and I helped them unload the whole truck in under 2 hours. They commended tim's packing skills with the truck. Everything got in, nothing was broken, and they took a personal check! Amazing!

Sixth: I started to sort stuff out, and found out that because so many people had moved to Chicago that weekend, every U-Haul place in the city was full. They absolutely could NOT take my truck. So I parked it down the street and when I returned it the next day, I totally forgot about filling the gas tank, but it was a $40 charge and the gas itself would have been the same, so i'm okay. My friend Mai took me to the bank and the grocery store, and then Mai and Kaye helped me put my bed together. Oh, sweet sleep!

Siete: That weekend of moving was followed by VERY LONG work hours, those extended into the weekend. It was alumni weekend, the reason i had started early in the first place! Yay! Everything went pretty well on Friday until I got home around 10 p.m.

I called Kaye and we decided to meet outside the el/subway stop in our neighborhood and get some mexican food. I waited there for a while, and eventually got to witness a woman urinating at the top of the subway escalator. I always wondered what state people had to be in to urinate in public places, and now i know. Did i mention i was writing Jo Ann (mother-in-law) an email on my blackberry while this was happening? I was like, yep, Tim's 30, you're coming down for graduation---OH MY GOD THERE IS A WOMAN URINATING RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. She wrote back "That's disgusting! Do you feel safe?" Jo Ann cares for my safety and understands, as most people do, that public urination is not good omen.

Ocho: Anyway, once we got food I was exhausted and my contacts and feet hurt, and i was like, i'm going home! oh wait. my keys. my key my keys...oh bugger. They are TOTALLY at my office in downtown Chicago. I left them there. I am stupid. So Kaye and i decided to try to break in to my new apartment. The easiest (and only) way to do this would be to check and see if i had left the windows on my back deck open. However, the deck had been scheduled to be ripped down that very same day! Isn't my luck amazing? So we went to see if the deck even existed. And in fact it did---all the way up to my second floor door. But without any railings. Just a little platform. So that was scary. And the windows were locked. Damn me and my big city fears!

Nueve: I ended up spending the night with Mai and Kaye and spent four hours on public transit that morning before I finally arrived at alumni weekend in south chicago, showered, dressed, and with cats fed and watered at home.




That is the end of this tale. But isn't it an eventful one? I will be going back to Cincinnati to graduate on Thursday, and mom and dad and Scottie and Liz are all visiting this week, plus in laws meeting us in Cinci! I am so happy the worst is over. Goodbye, worst. Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.

Forever.