First Days in D.C.

So it's been about a week since I've moved but it's been so busy! I've just now had the time to sit down and put anything together. We left for DC on Thursday at 6am. It was not a smooth start. My brother took a few pieces of my furniture in his truck, a desk and two bookcases. But we were barely on the road for five minutes when the tailgate of the truck fell open. We pulled over, shut it, and continued on. Just a few minutes later it fell open again (and did so again a total of six times). So we returned home and switched cars. I was no longer able to take the desk or the bookcases but at least I was able to take all the other little stuff. We finally hit the road around 8am. To make matters worse on the road our caravan got separated and Dandrich and I ended up getting missing an exit and taking a forty minute detour. Finally we got there, although nearly three hours after our anticipated arrival. But luckily it turned out alright.

Last pictures with my family before I left.

After carrying all the boxes, suitcases, bags etc inside we headed to Ikea to get the furniture which would now also include a desk and bookcase. The boxes wouldn't fit in the cars to take them back to my apartment so we had to sign up for home delivery. The soonest available time they  had was Saturday between 6pm-10pm so that's what we went with. Unfortunately they didn't have everything we needed at that Ikea so Friday we went another one in Virginia. Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday we spent assembling furniture and putting the apartment together. I vastly underestimated the amount of time it would take to get everything put together. We were running errands for most of Monday and Tuesday.

Q: How many Ikea boxes can you fit in a Prius?
A: This many.

Boxes sitting in my apartment waiting to be unpacked.

Monday we did venture to Chinatown for lunch. We ate at a place called Full Kee. The restaurant was terrific. They had a very authentic Peking duck. It was delicious. Thursday we ate at a great Japanese restaurant, Mokato. It was very traditional - patrons are even required to remove their shoes and wear customary Japanese slippers. I didn't get any pictures there because you are required to turn off your cell phone. The food was great. We got a ten-course meal which sounds like a lot more food then it really was because each course was rather small. But what it lacked in size it made up for in deliciousness. It was one of the best meals I ever had. Wednesday, once we finally had a bit of free time we went Annapolis, Maryland but I'm planning on doing a separate blogpost about that adventure.

Gateway in Chinatown

Moving and Flogging Molly

So I haven't been able to post for awhile and not because of a lack of things to post about. I have actually been insanely busy with the moving process. I had to move out of my old apartment in Columbus by the end of July but won't be moving to D.C. until August 11. So I've been homeless for a few days now. Luckily my parents have let me crash in their basement.

Now I know moving is never fun, except when your five and all you have to do is ride your tricycle up and down the ramp of the Uhaul truck, but I have realized the bigger the move the less fun it is. The logistics required for a move out-of-state are frustrating. It is a lot easier to get friends to help you move boxes for an afternoon than it is to get them to dedicate two or three days, which, by the way, is understandable.

Some things I've learned:

• When you pack a box/bag/suitcase etc. make sure to label what is inside. It sucks to have to reopen a bunch of boxes just to find one thing. 
• It is easier, and depending on the size of your place cheaper, to buy new furniture once you get there. Moving trucks are super expensive if you aren't moving in-town. For my move it would have been $600 plus gas costs plus 10 cents a mile on top of that! 
• You find all kinds of lost treasures when you move! 
• Things will not go the way you plan. Just expect to be frustrated and overwhelmed multiple times before you settle down. 

To further complicate matters during the weekend I had to move I happened to already have tickets to a Flogging Molly concert. And I couldn't let those go to waste. So after moving all the furniture and heavy stuff Friday we headed over to the LC Pavilion for the concert. We had barely found our spot on the lawn when it started raining, and eventually pouring, for the next four hours. 

But we stuck it out even though the first band, Clutch, sucked and kept getting delayed. At one point during the torrential downpour the frontman of Clutch said "Hold on guys, we're going to take five for a minute." Finally Flogging Molly took the stage. It was totally worth the wait. They played for just a little over two hours, which is a pretty long set, especially during an outdoor show bombarded by a  monsoon. They played all the songs I wanted to hear and some cool new stuff off their most recent album as well. 

I have no pictures or video of my own. (I didn't take my camera because of the rain). But, check out the video above I found on YouTube from the show. So in summary, a lot going on right now but I'm not going to bore you with all the banal details. Suffice it to say that since I'll be moving this Thursday there are about to be an explosion of new posts. Stayed tuned! 

July 15 & 16: Yard Sale

Oh Marion, you never cease to amaze me. Spending two days interacting with Marion's finest is not exactly my idea of a great way to spend some time off work. But, I needed to sell some stuff before I move. First of all, renting a truck to drive all the way to D.C. is really expensive. Also, I have a lot of stuff I probably don't need to take with me. And if I can make some money at the same time than that's even better.

I did not realize having a yard sale was such hard work. I spent Tuesday, Thursday, and most of Wednesday bringing stuff to my parent's house. Not to mention, for a few weeks beforehand I'd been stockpiling stuff from my apartment. I found a really helpful website with a lot of tips and advice.

Friday morning we got ready to set stuff up at 7 am since our signs said that we'd open at 8 am. But by 7:15 we already two cars parked in our driveway. They wasted no time in barging into the garage and trying to buy things that weren't even for sale. You can imagine my anger with people who have no reading comprehension skills. I guess my advice would be to make sure you have everything ready to go the night before. Also, I would get things set up well in advance of the start of your start time.

Some interesting visitors:

• The Amazing Racist - A friendly man who started out as not that crazy but ended up telling us a bunch of racist things that I was afraid would scare off other customers. 
• A tough guy (with long hair, piercings on the bridge of his nose, and lots of tattoos) who looked for about 5 minutes at my old prom dresses and nothing else. 
• Some little boy who mumbled non-stop while walking in circles around our garage the entire time his dad browsed our sale. 

All in all, I think the yard sale was a success. I made twice as much money as I had hoped for, which is always nice. Thankfully though, the stress of the yard sale is over and I can move on to the next task.