Friday, November 19, 2010

here's to you, california

Today marks one year since Heather and I moved home from California. I don't think I actually told the story about the move. So in honor of this sacred day, here goes:

Heather and I got up early to finish packing the car. We had loaded everything else in the pod which had been taken away the day before, so the things we had left HAD to fit in the car. We bought two cat carriers for the babies we had to fit in the back seat too. Luckily we jammed everything in the trunk and backseat, but it was FULL. We set off on what would be a 16+ hour day, but first we stopped at Starbucks. Once we got our caramel macchiatos and muffins, we realized we'd left our directions (different from what the GPS would tell us) at the apartment. Finally, we were on the road. The cats were so scared, even though we'd given them some calming medicine. Blizzard literally cried for the first TWO HOURS of the drive, NON-STOP!

Soon after Blizzard quieted down, Archie went potty and it SMELLED. Like, we were rolling down the windows and blasting air so we wouldn't throw up and had to pull over and clean it up, smelled. Heather and I pulled Archie out of his carrier and a poop flung out of the carrier and landed on me. We couldn't help but laugh the entire time this was happening. A semi turned around on the road to see if we were okay. We got Archie cleaned up and were back on the road. A little while later Blizzard got sick, so we made another stop on the side of the road to clean it up. This time we had a police officer stop to make sure we were okay. The thing about our stops was that the backseat of the car was literally PACKED. We had to pull things out and re-arrange in order to take the cats out of their carriers to clean things up. The babies were so freaked the entire time. My dad ended up finding a vet clinic in Nevada that we stopped at to get some different stuff to help calm them down, which didn't do much.

In the middle of Nevada we experienced an INSANE windstorm. At one point there was so much dirt and dust flying around we could barely see the brake lights of the car in front of us. The wind was blowing the car around on the road. We stopped at a gas station and the large covering over the gas pumps was moving around. At one point a large matress was picked up by the wind off the left side of the road and FLEW OVER our car, by like one foot. Praise God for His protection. It was so close to flying in front of us. We were already sick of Nevada and had added over two hours to our travel time because of our unexpected stops, when it got dark and started pouring rain. We had made it to Winnemuca and were so close to stopping for the day. But we just wanted to get out of Nevada and get home because we were exhausted and the cats were still scared.

Once we finally crossed into Oregon we flipped Nevada off. But Oregon wasn't much better than Nevada. It gave us snow and a bobcat in the middle of the road. Luckily I saw it and Heather was able to swerve around it just in time. We were so exhausted and started playing a game to keep ourselves awake. Thankfully we weren't in Oregon long. As soon as we crossed into Idaho the sky opened up and the stars came out. It was pretty amazing! We finally made it home around 11pm. The cats were thankful to be out of their carriers, but were still scared about their new home.

I don't think we would have made it through the day without our sense of humor. After every crazy thing that would happen, we just had to laugh. Because, seriously? We would think, it can't get worse, nothing else is going to happen, but then, of course, it would.

I couldn't imagine that a year later I would have just ended my job at the fire center and be in almost the same place again. No real plan for whats next. I'm so thankful that I'm done with this job, because it means I'll have more time for school. I really need to buckle down for the rest of the semester and get more prepared for my Thesis Proposal Midpoint Review next semester. I'd really like to find a good part-time job, so that I can continue to pay off my credit card and get out of debt. I know that moving home was exactly what I was supposed to do, even though I miss California like CRAZYYYY, especially lately. I'm really just trusting God to lead me, like He has many time before, where He wants me.

Anyway, here's to you, California. I miss you.











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