We're here!

I feel like a piano landed on my head, but we're here, finally. In one piece. The car did fine, the cats survived, nothing broke.

Dealing with the movers was much more of a pain in the ass than I expected. There was a separate packing crew, to deal with packing the flat-screen TV and a few odds and ends (for insurance purposes, I wasn't allowed to pack the flat-screen TV myself). They dripped some sort of motor oil/grease/industrial lubricant ALL OVER the carpet, which means I'm now involved in an ongoing battle with their insurance company to make them pay for cleaning it up. They claim I did it and I'm trying to place the blame on them; to which I reply, I don't own anything with motor oil! Moreover, everything I own was packed in boxes before they arrived, and the drips were nowhere near those boxes. Now the apartment complex informs me that whatever the substance was, it's now actually burned through the carpet in those spots.

But eventually the movers came and took everything away, and we were able to hit the road. Goodbye, San Diego! We spent the first night in Vegas, simply because we couldn't have driven any farther after dealing with movers/carpet issues all day.

The next day we hit the road about 7 am, for a 24-hour haul to Columbia, MO. The route took us through Utah and Colorado (I-15 and I-70), which was some of the most gorgeous, uncomplicated driving I've ever been involved with. Amazing scenery, empty highway, 75-mph speed limit, sunny, and not a cloud in the sky. I never really fell in love with San Diego (weather aside), but I am a little in love with the scenery of the West. Crazy rock formations, pointy mountains, weird salt basins, national forests, the Rocky Mountains...well, you get the idea. Utah may be full of Mormons, but it's really, really beautiful, in a way that's completely unlike anything on the East Coast. Don't even get me started on the open spaces.

We hit Denver about sundown, which was fine, because we were just going to spend the next ten hours driving through Kansas anyway. I've now driven through Kansas in the summer, the winter, and at night. And if you thought it was boring during the day, let me tell you. It was EXTRA boring at night.

We got to Columbia about 7 am, slept a bit, then spent the day with family (and getting our car's first oil change!). It was great seeing everyone again, and we got to drink some of the beer my brother-in-law made for the wedding. Good times. Then we slept for 12 hours.

Back on the road again at 9 am. Remember how the previous day's driving was beautiful, and uncomplicated, and awe-inspiring? Well, then we spent 22 hours driving through Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. Then we drove through Erie, PA. Then Buffalo, NY. Then the NY State Thruway. Then the Massachusetts Turnpike. Oh, and it was pouring rain for much of that. There was nonstop roadwork. The cats were tired of being in the car and were picking fights with each other the whole time, I'd done something to my shoulder during the move and it was killing me, and the landscape made me want to stab myself in the eye with a plastic fork. Why is it that the interstates east of the Mississippi have to all look the same? The same trees, the same fields, the same truck stops and signs and grey, flat, cloudy industrial suburban byproducts. I haven't seen the sun since Denver, quite literally. If it weren't for the Mormons, I might seriously consider going straight back to Utah and setting up shop somewhere within sight of a pretty mountain, with no people around anywhere.

But lots of that was just road-weary crankiness. We got to our temporary housing in the western 'burbs of Boston around 6 am Sunday, and spent the day unpacking/sleeping/recuperating. We went grocery shopping, bought some booze, ran to Target, and got DH ready for his first day on the new job today.

Here are my first impressions of Massachusetts, in no particular order:

1. It's cloudy, grey, and already sweater weather.
2. Despite that, someone told me today--without being sarcastic--"Beautiful today, isn't it?"
3. Booze is way, WAY more expensive than in California. Like, $10 a bottle more expensive.
4. But gas is 40 cents a gallon cheaper.
5. Seafood is abundant, fresh, and cheap. That may be the saving grace of all this.
6. The urban layout is weird. The roads are oddly laid out, there's no rhyme or reason to where things are (Sam's Club in the middle of a residential neighborhood? Why not?), everything is jammed close together. Imagine New York City, only you have to have a car.
7. The cats are ecstatic to be out of the car.
8. The car now smells like cats, and not in a good way.
9. I'm not so old I can't do long-haul driving like that, but I'm definitely old enough to not want to do it.
10. The next person who says the word "moving" to me is going to get punched in the face.

However, I have three interviews tomorrow with three different staffing agencies, and I'm already making plans to hit NYC next weekend to see all my friends.

So to comfort myself, I'll make a big pot of crawfish etouffee tonight with fresh crawfish, and watch some free hotel cable, and try not to think about how long it will take for my hard-won tan to fade.