The move...

July 14th--> July 30, 2006

Hello everyone!

I just got my new cable services, so I am finally able to make an entry and add an entry to the “chronicles” :o)

So after a long tiring week I am finally all moved in to my new apartment. It definitely has been loads of hard work, but well worth it…

Summer session ended on Thursday the 20th. After class in the morning we had a quiz, and then later on a farewell party. Oh my, the food was excellent!!! I just love cheese! The party was real fun, it was nice to see everyone for one last time. Later on that day, I went to help Dr. K with a research project she is working on. She needed people to help her with her wording of the questions—I did just that, it was fun. For all the help, she gave us a small gift certificate at Barnes and Noble, and I decided to give it to Omer.

On Friday I went with Vega and KC to Dr. K (a different Dr. K) the veterinarian. I got some calming medications for the cats (which we ended up not using), one last check up for Vega and weighing for KC. Dr. K said they were both nice and healthy and ready for the move.

On Friday night I continued packing, and did just that on Saturday. On Sunday Omer flew in, and I picked him up at the airport, stopped to get some food for home and enjoyed a small lunch at ‘Applebees.’ Omer was excited about helping me with the move, but was worried about his cat allergies. As it turned out, the Benadryl worked great, but sure made him sleepy.

On Monday morning, I showed Omer around my school and said last goodbyes to the wonderful Dr. Cole and Dorothy. At around 10am we went to get the rental truck. …then we couldn’t avoid it anylonger… we had to work…

OY! Packing wasn’t too bad, but fitting everything into the truck (in essence playing “Tetris” in the real world), lifting and carrying was pretty hectic. We got almost everything in, and had a few leftovers for Tuesday morning. We were both tired and fell asleep really fast.

On Tuesday morning (my move out day) we got up at about 6am to finish the last moving bits… Well, it is amazing how the few little things I had left took us over three hours to finish fitting into the truck. By 10:00 I was ready to check out, and so we put the cats into their carrier (they were most unhappy by it, and the minute I opened the carrier door to give them some water they ran straight back into the now-empty apartment.

In anycase, we finished my walk-through with one of the people from the front office, and I promised them I’ll come say hi during graduation week in two years… Then I went downstairs to the loading-dock, put the cats in the car, said goodbye to Sasha, Phuc and Vivien who were all standing there, and took off.

On the first day of drive we drove all the way to Indianapolis. The drive was easy, but long, and when we got to our hotel, we were both pretty tired. That night, the cats decided to hide under the hotel beds.

The next morning, Omer and I had a nice breakfast (gotta love motel waffles!), we managed to get the cats from under the bed and then took off again, driving across gorgeous Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania (we were in that state for a really long time) and finally, New Jersey. We found our hotel, but this time around the hotel were smart and put a surrounding area around the bed to prevent any pets from going under the beds… Well… that didn’t work too well, because KC found a small hole and hid under the bed again.

Well, this time we decided to go to a nearby restaurant, which happened to be Applebees again… We were both tired of sandwiches and snacks. When we came back to the room, we convinced KC to come out. When he came out he brought with him a big ball of human hair…. EWWWWW!!! GROSS!!! Omer threw it away and I was revolted. Blah! Well, we then managed to block the hole and KC had no choice but to join Vega in the room.

Both of the cats did extremely well on this trip. They did not need any calming medications. KC sat in the small litter box I put in, and Vega sat on top of the upper shelf I built for them. They meowed only when the calming sound of Jim Dale reading “Harry Potter and the Half Blooded Prince” ceased. I did not mind listening to Harry Potter on a CD all the way to NJ, and the ‘Furry Bunch’ needed that noise to calm them down.

The next morning I moved to my new apartment, and this was the hardest day of the whole trip!!! Although my electricity was working, the apartment was very very hot and the air conditioning was not working properly. With 97 degrees outside and about 100% humidity, I thought I was literally going to melt. It was horrid.

We got everything put into the apartment (that was much easier than fitting everything into the truck), and then we started cleaning and building. Omer built my bed while I was cleaning the bathroom. Both Omer and I had flushed faces, and we were just miserable! I couldn’t hold the frustration down anymore and shed a few tears—Omer was quite abashed by my ‘girly’ behavior, and I had to explain that this is how I take my frustration out. But all in all, during the moving in day I just wanted to go back to my very bad neighborhood in Kansas City! I really did not want to clean other people’s dirt.

I don’t know about you, but if the dirt is mine, I don’t mind it, but if it is someone elses… well… I hate it and have to clean very thoroughly. And so I did…

The next morning we continued… I cleaned the kitchen, which was just awful… someone had a food explosion in there, and I cleaned every last bit of it. During that time, Omer was putting together my living room and computer area. By the end of the day we had put almost everything in place. I still had a few boxes that needed to be put in place, and a few more small cleaning projects, but overall, the place looked definitely livable. Before dinner we drove down to my new hospital and I got very excited about it. It is one of the rotation sites where we will end up at. It is fairly close to my place, which is nice… We ended up eating in Olive Garden again… we both like Italian dishes. Then we decided to drive up to the mall and were quite disturbed to see a ‘dying mall’… basically, no cars, very few open stores… very scary!

The next morning, Omer and I drove to the airport, and I said a sad goodbye to my brother who has been just wonderful during this move! Then he went on his flight and I drove back home… I was amazed I did not get lost and then I continued with my cleaning projects.

Today (Sunday), I finally finished all that was needed to be done. All the dirt is now mine (well… hopefully), everything is put away and any mess that I have here is mine! This is much better!!!

I actually enjoy living in the suburbs… it is nice! And now my apartment looks really nice and it feels like home again. My cats are not in hiding any longer, and are actually playing, which is just great. Overall, this wasn’t too bad!

Well… That is it for now.

I hope you all had a great two weeks—
I’ll write soon later,

Love,

Reut