The Final Countdown

I'm in Indiana right now waiting with baited breath for the call that will tell me that my stuff is arriving in St. Paul. I called the movers this morning to see if they could give me any sort of update, but all I found out was that my things are still in Winston Salem, which isn't that helpful. This blog is about my last few days in Winston Salem. I had taken pictures of some of the delightful food items that I had eaten, but can't find my cord to transfer pictures from my camera to my laptop which I had packed in an easy to locate location of course. I'm a little sad because there was a fantastic picture of some colorful and well-packed sushi leftovers from Ichiban.

Let's see....where do I begin? I guess I'll start on Wednesday. Last yoga class. I got a hug from Ana the crazy lady that takes yoga...she's ridiculous...and smells like moth balls and oranges which seems about right, but apparently is a well published author. I find her fascinating because she seems utterly confused by the world around her. If aliens landing in the parking lot of the gym, and randomly wandered into the building, I'm pretty sure they'd act about the same way as she does. It blows my mind that she's a life coach or whatever. I had movers pack me which is so worth it. They arrive and tell me that they plan to have my stuff packed up in 2 hours. I'm amazed. It takes them about 2 hours and 20 minutes, but I'm still rather amazed because I have a lot of crap. They however, do a stupid job with box placement. I have one small box in the entirety of my living room, but yet have to scale over dish boxes in order get to my fridge (and my yummy sushi leftovers from Andy and my last sushi lunch...sniffle...which I would show you a picture of, but can't) and I can't close the door to my bathroom because of heavy boxes wedged against it. Can't wait to see how the things are actually packed inside the boxes. I go for my last milkshake from Cookout on Wednesday...Reese's peanut butter cup. I also deal with some recurring friend drama which was not what I needed as I'm getting ready to move...but that's all I'll say about that. (None of you...I promise.)

Thursday: movers arrive. They get sooo pissed with the packers who apparently left a bunch of stuff unboxed. A for instance. My quesadilla maker which has it's own box apparently should've been put in a larger box with other stuff, but wasn't. They get even more pissed when they see that my golf clubs weren't boxed up. Not sure why. Even though I had neatly piled everything that wasn't to be loaded, and said "Everything else goes" I was constantly asked "Does this go?" I wanted to respond "Is that part of everything? then yes." I tried to stay out of the way and as they loaded I cleaned. I got annoyed at having long hair (and excessively thick long hair at that) because as I clean, I shed and find hair everywhere...annoying. For lunch I have a fab chicken pot pie (not PA style pot pie, rest of the world style pot pie--which again, I would show you a picture of if I could) from Zoe's. I return back to cleaning and get a nice surprise as Erik and Will who live across the street (Will doesn't officially live across the street, but for the most part does) come over to say goodbye and chat until Will starts talking crap about the upcoming Wake/ND football game, and I kick him out of my apartment. I take my cable box back to the Time Warner place at the mall which is quick and easy since I know exactly where it is in the mall thanks to helping Kathleen take hers back. Load my car, take a shower cause I'm gross from cleaning. My maintenance guy comes with a painter and they start prepping my apartment for the new tenant. I would've thought they could've waited till I got out. Heard the best southern simile EVER. My maintenance guy was exploring a mystery wet spot on my floor and says "well, it couldn't come from over here because that wall is as dry as a popcorn fart." As dry as a popcorn fart....are you farting popcorn? or is the popcorn itself farting? I love random Southern expressions!

My original plan was to spend the night on a blow up mattress in my empty apartment. Andy convinced me that that was stupid (it was), so I was just waiting for him to get off work in order to check into his guest room. He calls and says he's on his way home. He has some work thing later that evening so I go to pick up dinner at Dioli's before heading immediately over to his place. Dioli's apparently has implemented "summer hours" and is closed...which pissed me off...it's 5pm and you're a restaurant. I don't care if you're mostly a sandwich place or not. I settle for Subway instead. blech, but fits my qualifications of nearby, quick and not total crap...Check in to Andy's place. I eat, and we talk about our day as well as a wealth of miscellaneous other things including but not limited to pickles, gin, psychology, diary farms, etc. It's actually very homey having dinner and talking at a kitchen table. He gets a beer bottle from the fridge and no matter how many times I've seen him do it it still amazes me when he opens it on his forearm. Before he leaves he shows me how to use the TV, where an extra key is in case I want to go somewhere, where towels are in case I have a sudden urge to take a shower, wifi access, etc and gives the all encompassing "help yourself to everything, call if you need anything" host like gesture and leaves. I eventually tuck myself in between the black sheets and lay my head on the gold pillows (Wake Forest colors, of course) of his guest bed and fall asleep before he gets back home.

I wake up to find that he has already left for the gym. How someone can go to bed at 11pm and wake up at 4am, I still don't understand. I help myself to breakfast and wait for his return. He had asked me the night before if I could hang out until he got back so that he could see me off. Of course I could. He gets back from the gym, loads me up with snacks and Diet Cokes for my long drive, and we head out to my car for a somewhat ridiculous, tearful, and sweaty (it was apparently treadmill day for him at the gym) goodbye. I cry for the first half hour of the drive. I had a great time at Wake Forest and in Winston Salem. I met great people and did great things, and my heart is a little broken.