Moving day

I took the picture to the right this morning out my living room window. God, Oregon is beautiful. The move up here however was anything but.

I had been doing a fantastic job at getting everything packed and ready to go and then Brian got to Los Angeles and I lost focus. It's not his fault just suddenly hanging out with Brian and our friends seemed way more fun than packing and moving boxes to the garage so Thursday was a bit of a waste. Friday morning we got up way too late and drove to Bakersfield to pick up our rental truck. If you're wondering why we drove all the way to Bakersfield to pick up a rental truck it's because it's was about a thousand dollars cheaper than renting it anywhere in L.A. By the time we got home with the truck and started loading it was nearly 5pm. Honestly I think we were hoping to have been close to done packing by that time but oh well at least it was cooling off so it wouldn't be so damn hot while we loaded the truck.

Now as most of you know I've been a little worried about this move because Brian still has that tumor in his arm and can't really lift very much. That meant it was just Jim and I doing all the heavy lifting. I had asked a few people if they wouldn't mind helping out but most of my friends in L.A are either girls or gay, neither of which seem to be very interested in heavy lifting if they can avoid it. So I did ask my one straight male able bodied friend and he agreed. In fact I asked him several times over the weeks prior to the move if he was sure he'd be there and every time he assured me that he would.

I have to say I was a little nervous from the get go that my friend was going to bail on me. He had flaked on me twice before but he had been so adamant this time that I was very hopeful that he'd make it. Well around 4pm or so Friday he still hadn't shown up and I hadn't heard from him so I decided to send him a little text to make sure he was still coming. He texted me back exactly this "Alots going on im going to try ok"

So needless to say my friend totally fucking flaked on me. Not only that but he didn't even have the courtesy to call me and tell me what was up. Only after I texted him did he give me any inkling that he wasn't going to show. What as asshole. More on what an asshole he is later.

So back to our story. Thank God for Adam. Adam is one of the guys who is taking over our lease at our apartment in L.A. He offered to come over Friday and help move and yes he actually showed up. He couldn't stay long but while he was there he helped Jim move all the big heavy stuff that I couldn't. I don't think we could have done it without him.

About the time Adam was leaving Kyle, our other roommate, showed up and helped us load for a hour or so. Around midnight we were exhausted and still had a ways to go so we decided to call it a night and went to bed. We had originally planned to be leaving for Oregon around 8am Saturday morning but instead we were getting up to finish loading the truck. I don't know what it was about Saturday but what seemed like it should have taken just a few hours to finish took all day. By the time the truck was fully loaded, we had vacuumed the house, taken a shower and gotten in our cars to leave town it was 5pm!

We pulled out of town in a caravan. Brian in front Driving the truck. Me following Brian in my neon and Jim pulling up the rear in his Kia.

We hadn't been on the road long when Brian called me on the cell phone. He was exhausted and his head was pounding and he didn't know how long he could go on. Well, we were on The Grapevine and there is no where to stop until we got over it so I told him just as soon as we get down off this mountain we can stop. But Brian got to feeling a little better and we managed to make it all the was to Santa Nella and decided to stop and spend the night. The Hotel was actually pretty nice. It was clean and the beds were comfy. If it wasn't for the damn cats making noise all night I would have slept like a baby.

We got up the next morning around 6am or so. Had the best Continental breakfast I've ever had and got back on the road. The second day of travel pretty much went without incident. We made good time and got into town around 3:30pm. Of course as soon as we crossed over the boarder from California into Oregon Jim and I did a happy dance in our cars. It really does feel amazing to be home again.