We made it!

It's day #4 in the new place and this is the first night I've felt alert enough to post anything. I've moved before, but I've never moved like this before. It was simply... exhausting.

It started with filling my car to the gills (maybe that analogy doesn't work for cars, I'm not sure) and driving cross-country. I was a little nervous about something sliding out of place and hitting me in the head, but apparently everything was packed in so tightly it really couldn't move. On day one of the move, Irie and I made it from Baltimore to Waterloo, IN and spent the night with Grandma Deetz. The next day we continued on our way to Chicago where we picked up the moving truck, Ryan (from the airport) and my old couch in that order. Then, with me behind the wheel of the truck and Ryan driving my car, we headed out to Freeport to Mom's. We loaded up the truck Saturday morning and made the last leg of the trip down to St. Louis. We arrived in St. Louis around 7pm and were met at the house by our new landlord and two of Ryan's friends from highschool who just happen to live nearby.

His friends were nice enough to bring over dinner, so we all had a quick dinner of pizza and then unloaded the truck. With Ryan's friends, their wives, kids, Carl, Kathleen and Lily and a neighbor - the truck was unloaded in record time!

While there's still some unpacking and organizing to do, the house is looking good and Ryan and I both really like it. (And so does Irie - especially the backyard!) The neighborhood is what I like to refer to as "up and coming" but our immediate neighbors all seem nice and one of Ryan's best friends from highschool actually lives 10 doors down from us. What are the chances of that?

Some of my favorite things about being in St. Louis so far are...

• The proximity of the house to all kinds of good shopping including the Galleria Mall and pretty much every store you could want.
• The fact that you can buy alcohol in grocery stores.
• That our town's city hall is tiny and when we went in to get our occupancy permit there was absolutely no wait.
• The price of pretty much everything being lower.
• Being closer to (pretty much) everyone!

In fact, there's only a few things that I'm not a big fan of - one is that St Louis isn't smoke free yet like Chicago and Baltimore are. Basically this means that people can still smoke in restaurants and bars - so whether or not you're a smoker you smell and feel like one by the end of the night. The other is just the lack of a social network, but I know that will come with time. The meetup groups are a bit less active here, but I'm sure I can do something about that. And then there are those nasty cardinals.... :-)

All in all, everything is moving right along. Ryan even had a preliminary interview today - so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that something will come up in that area soon! I have to give a facilitator training in Austin on Saturday, so unfortunately I won't have this weekend to just kick back and continue getting acclimated, but maybe by the weekend after I'll be truly settled.