gabeanderson.com: life: December 23, 2003

Moving Day (relocating)

The clock just struck midnight, which means that it is officially moving day. We're still awake packing, of course, but are in the home stretch. I realize I've been saying that for days, though. The past week has been a blur of social activities, great fun, and tons of packing. Why is it that we've been planning this move for so long and didn't have time to finish packing with a day or so to rest? I suppose that's human nature: Procrastination.

Some guy should be here any minute to buy our last remaining piece of furniture for sale.

Cross Country: Day 1 (relocating)

Roseville, Calif. -- With only four hours of sleep before the movers arrived this morning, Jen and I have successfully completed day one of our cross-country journey, albeit it was only San Francisco to Roseville (outside Sacramento).

Twenty-four hours ago, things seemed bleak. Stuff was still amok. Boxes were still untaped. And the movers were due at nine. Packing is the most exhausting part of moving. But somehow, everything was looking better this morning. Once it was all packed up and organized neatly inside brown cardboard, all our crap seemed contained. Three movers were in and out in less than two hours, our inspection was shortly thereafter, and we were on the road to Sacramento.

Our first stop was to pay our respects at Odd Fellows Cemetery, where the remains of Nana and Alan rest. It was an important stop that I’d been wanting to do for quite some time, especially before moving East. I shed some tears and it was somehow calming.

After some onion rings to die for at Willy’s on Broadway, we headed south to meet up with James for some drinks and emotional “see ya laters.” Goodbyes: Who needs ‘em? We shed some more tears when James presented us with a guardian for our trip: The St. Christopher pendant he wears around his neck.

The first tears I shed were those when my Dad came by Monday night. It’s meant so much to live near him for nearly five years. It hadn’t really sunk in until that night that yes, we were leaving San Francisco.

And here we are, not geographically far from our now-former home in San Francisco, at Aunt Liz’s in Roseville, where we had dinner, good conversation, great laughs.

We’ve embarked on a tremendous journey the energy for which we would simply not have without the love and encouragement of all our family and friends.

“You guys are brave to be doing this,” said James.