Not in Kansas Anymore

Whew. I honestly don’t know where to start. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind like no other. I completely feel like Dorothy…pretty much minding my own business and then…POOF…swept away to a foreign land in the blink of an eye. It’s crazy that it’s only been a few weeks since all this change was set in motion. And here I am tonight sitting in my (second…we’ll get to that in a minute) hotel room in Orange County California.

So let’s see. There was the move itself. I’m so glad that Mother Nature blew through with 20 degree temps the day of the move. That was ever so helpful to the whole process. I won’t soon forget the morning that the movers were loading the truck and my mom and dad and I were upstairs in the warmest room of the house with coats and gloves shivering away. Three hours with the door open with those kind of temps has that effect.

Other than being mind numbingly cold (I’m from TEXAS, people…I don’t have the constitution to withstand anything less that 45 degrees), the move went very smoothly. I gave away about half of my stuff and really regret that I didn’t take a picture of my garage before the charity came and took it all away. It was, if I do say so myself, one impressive heap of junk. Absolutely a case of where one man’s trash is another’s treasures. Seriously…I hope that others are enjoying that stuff. I feel so much lighter without it!

There were a few glitches of course (my favorite was about 20 minutes after the truck drove away and my mom happened to open the largest drawer in the kitchen. To find it FULL. Yep. Luckily that was the only thing the packers missed). But my belongings have arrived in California and I’m so happy to be back in possession of my car—not because I care about the car at all, but it was impressively packed with all the stuff that I will have access to in the next couple of months while most of my stuff is in storage. So now I’m not just living out of one suitcase…I’m living out of six of them. Good times.

When I got here I checked into an extended stay hotel. For some reason I thought it made sense to get a place where I could pick up groceries and feel somewhat settled in for the first week. I clearly didn’t factor in the 80 hours of work that left minimal time to eat…let alone shop. The hotel was absolutely disgusting (and I’m pretty sure the carpet hasn’t been changed since 1984). I can’t believe I stayed there for 5 nights, but I’m happy to report that I vacated the flea bag suites this morning.

I had hoped to move into an apartment today. I did find a place yesterday, but can’t move in until 2/1. I’ll be in a furnished apartment for a couple of months while I get the lay of the land and figure out where I really want to live. I found a super cute place in Laguna Beach about 3 blocks away from the beach and village. I can’t believe that I will live walking distance to the beach. This, my friends, is my dream come true.

So many other things have happened (including my car showing up broken…though apparently not the movers fault), but it’s all just coming together. It’s been quite a ride, but I’m not sure anything has just snapped into place for me before like all of the details around this whirlwind move have. I am so many miles from home and barely know anyone out here, but I’m so happy and at peace that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.

Even if the gas is $3.19 per gallon.