I woke up this morning in my New York City apartment. 

Wow. 

The last three days have been an epic journey. Here’s a recap:

Monday, we packed. After realizing that a 24′ Budget truck was too big to drive in the city, we reevaluated and decided on an 18′, which at the time still seemed huge. Of course, like Christmas trees, boxes seem to magically grow when you put them in enclosed spaces such as moving vans, so by the time we had gotten through packing for 5 of our 10 person caravan, worry began to set in. Items were ditched left and right. I forwent a vacuum, microwave, bed frame, anything that might help us fit into our quickly shrinking life pod. Mark’s packing skills are magical though, and slowly but surely things began to look up. [Here's a quick shout-out to Mark and Aaron, who didn't need to help us but did out of the greatness of their hearts! You guys rock!] After a quick break for goodbyes at Freddies around 10, we reconvened  and worked well into the morning (2 am? 3am?) before we called it quits for the day and I drove home to sleep upon a bare mattress with a single blanket. Oh, the life of an apprentice.

After a good three hours of sleep, I awoke to take care of several last minute details, which ended up taking a good three hours. Even so, we were able to get a relatively early start out of Louisville, hitting I-64 at 10:30.

Nancy, Moy, Matt, and Dalto stand beside our budget truck, packed beyond the edge of what seemed possible.

A brief stop in Lexington allowed me to drop off the Explorer at Dad’s and then we headed towards D.C. in Dozer, my now-former-roommate’s beat up Maxima, held together with duct tape and love.

It rained all day, and the drive took 11-12 hours, but we finally made it to Chris’ house, our stop for the night. After being greeted with the welcoming gestures of pizza and beer, another unloading session ensued for both Chris and Anne, who are spending the summer in D.C. and then it was another short night before we hit the road again, this time at 5:30 am.

And then we were in New York. At which point it occurred to me that OhMyGodIHaveNoPlan!!! Only a two-month sublet was between me and a cardboard box on skid row. Simultaneously, I realized that OhMyGodI’mLivingInNewYorkNow!!! I was about to embark on the most exciting journey of my life. The two thoughts did a pretty good job not only of obliterating each other, but everything else in my head, and as I stared at the empire state building all I could say was “Ahh, I’m scared.” Pure poetry.

Nancy was there to reassure me that everything would be fine, and I eventually returned to the realm of rational thought. Soon we were at her apartment in Harlem, where we met her roommate, unloaded her things, and moved on to the next place in what would become a pattern for the entire day. Lila was next, then Jon, Me, Moy, [then a brief adventure which involved locking ourselves out of the cab of the moving van, and our first trip to a storage unit to reserve space], Dalto, our second trip trip to the storage units, a trip back to Nancy’s, and finally Steve’s place. 

It was then back to my apartment, where I met Jay, a former apprentice and one of my new roommates, who took me out to eat at tasty tacos, and showed me around the neighborhood. It’s a beautiful place, and I can’t wait to go explore it further, which in fact is what I’m about to do right now!