jesshartley

This morning, we woke up at 7am in the Sheraton hotel in Syracuse New York. We arrived here just before midnight last night, after various adventures that found us leaving the Pioneer Valley around 8pm. Thankfully we'd already booked the hotel in Syaracuse on Hotwire (non-refundable) so that, and the idea of finally being on our way after months of working towards the move, kept us going despite the set backs.

And were there ever setbacks!

Moving is never easy. Cross country moves, that involve selling a house you just bought two years ago in a market that is now much much harder than the one you bought it in, is the epitome of "not easy". But we've managed to get through it so far (knock on wood) and are on our way.

Monday, the three 5x7x8 storage PODS that we are renting to move our stuff arrived, and we were supposed to pack them all and take the pets to the airport, thus leaving us available to depart our old home whenever we were finished with the packing on Tuesday.

We'd done a huge amount of pre-packing, so the vast majority of our belongings were already in boxes... hundreds and hundreds of boxes. We filled the first pod with our freezer, washer/dryer and a bazillion boxes arranged in a thoroughly efficient tetris-inspired fashion. That was when the trouble began. We put the first two sections of the four part sectional in the second pod and discovered that the couch was far, far bigger than we'd realized. Like "how do we fit this all in there" big. After a great deal of grumping and fussing and measuring and growling (witnessed and supported by the incredible duo of Josh and Taneka, who were kind enough to a) bring us food and b) help us schlep our stuff, both of which were heartily appreciated.)

Eventually, after a great deal of measuring and calculation, we figured that we could fit all of the major pieces of furniture except the new desk we'd bought at Ikea a few weeks before. And, since it was too late for a yard sale and there was no way to get it into the Honda Civic we're driving cross country, we ended up giving it to one of the Valkyrie's friends families, who will use it for their children's new laptop work station. After that, it was an orgy of de-possessing things. We gave away coffee tables and end tables and televisions and tv stands and ... more things than I want to think about. But, eventually (after stopping a few hours for sleep Monday night) we had all of the things that were precious to us (other than the family, of course) in the PODS.

The topic of family brings us to the other big challenge we overcame on Monday/Tuesday (or should I say series of challenges). These involved the fact that we were shipping our three furry family members (Anubis the belgian shepherd and Nuit and Wrongway, the cats) out to Arizona, rather than subjecting them to an 8 day cross country drive. They were supposed to fly out at 4:10 on Monday afternoon, to be picked up in Tucson by a kennel there, and boarded until we arrived around the 1st of August.

You'll note I said "supposed to".

When I arrived down in Hartford, I discovered that both the Viking and I had somehow managed to miss putting the door to the dog's kennel (which is too big to transport in our car put together, so it has to be carried in pieces and then put together on site) into the car. So, with an hour before the flight and home almost an hour away, there was no way to get them on the plane safely. Luckily we were able to rearrange and put them on the Tuesday flight and the kennel was able to pick them up. Then when we arrived Tuesday, their fiscal program wouldn't accept either of our credit cards (both which had more than enough to cover the 650$ fee for shipping the pets), so I had to make a speed run to a nearby bank and take out enough cash to pay for the trip! It was insane.

But, we're on our way now, and (again thanks to Josh and Taneka) we used Hotwire to book an /awesome/ room in Syracuse last night for less than most Best Western rooms run. We got up early, had a lovely breakfast buffet, went swimming, and are now going to do a quick shower and get on the road.

By a lovely coincidence, we're going through Buffalo around lunch time, so I'm going to have the chance to take Jack Greenley (the Con Chair for UBCon earlier this year) out to lunch to introduce him to the family and thank him for putting me up for the night when my flight home from UBCon got delayed overnight.

Then we'll be arriving in Cleveland around 5, in time to have dinner with Matt and Heather and Teagan! Hurray! It's been way too long since I've seen them! After that, we're driving on to Columbus where we have yet another awesome (and cheap) Hotwire room (this time at the Crowne Plaza, for less than $75 bucks a night! I love Hotwire!)