Now that I've lost all my readers...

Wow, it has been TOO long since posting something. Yikes.

Well, I've been a little bit busy, so I hope any of my readers who stumble back here can find it in their hearts to forgive me. Ha.

Most of the people who read my blog know me in real life, so they know what's been going on. I finished the semester strong at seminary. I got credit for all my classes, so that is very good! Our last day was mid-May, but that didn't mean that I was suddenly free and clear to do nothing!

After graduation Sunday, which I attended b/c some of the people I started with were graduating (The M.A. program generally takes 2 years whereas the M.Div program generally takes about 4). It was a good day, and one of congratulations and "see ya laters."

That weekend, I also spent much of my time packing up my stuff to move! After a person finishes their "Middler" (2nd) year at seminary, they generally go off on internship. Most of you have heard about my internship dilemma, what with them not being able to find me a place as quickly as my classmates. Well, they found me a place where I wanted to be!!! I'm excited about this, to say the least. So, I packed up all my stuff with the help of one of my very good friends, with plans to move it to the state to which I am assigned via a U-haul truck. I planned to drive the U-haul and my friend was going to follow me in my car.

Well, the morning of U-haul renting didn't go exactly as planned. I had wanted to pick it up on Sunday morning before church, that way we could load it up and then head out bright and early on Monday morning. That way, by the time I got to the place that would become my new home, there would be people there to help unload us. However, I don't have a "real" credit card b/c I didn't use it enough and the company cancelled it. So, I have a debit/credit card that I use. However, those of you familiar with debit/credit cards will know that there is often a smaller type limit on them. Fortunately, or so I thought, I thought about that beforehand and called the bank to tell them to up my limit because I was moving. They did so, but said that they could only up the limit by pin protecting it. I didn't think that'd be a problem, so thanked them and continued planning.

Well, it was a problem! When I got to the U-haul place on Sunday morning, I went through the whole process with the gentleman behind the desk. However, my card was declined and they didn't have a "pin" option, so I was out of luck right then. So, he told me that I would need to go get cash for the rental, plus a $100 dollar deposit. Well, by this time, I was running late for church and because two of my other friends had driven me down there, I realized it probably wasn't going to work. But, the guy told me about one of the banks in SeminaryTown that was open early on Sunday morning. So, I took my friends back to their apartment so they could get ready for church, took a flying trip out to the bank, and found that indeed it was NOT open that early. So, I drove back to the seminary, and went with my two friends to church, resigned to the fact that things were not going as planned.

After church, though, I went BACK to the bank, talked with the teller, and then withdrew the money out of my checking account from an ATM, which was very odd. It's not often that I hold that kind of money in my two hands. So, I locked it up back at home and went about my day.

The next day, then, another friend took me down to the U-haul place again. This time, we did the whole procedure and he asked for the cash (but it was a different guy who didn't ask for the deposit $100). So, I reached into my pocket (that I had been guarding VERY closely) and pulled out this big chunk o' money and I counted out the fee to the guy. He told me that my 10 foot truck had been taken by someone else the day before, but that they would give me the 14 foot truck at no extra charge. He gave me the keys, told me which one I was to take, and adjusted my sideview mirror for me before sending me on my way.

My friend later said, "I've never actually see someone just randomly pull $1000 bucks out of their pocket like that." Ha. Stick with me; I'm pretty weird.

Anyway, so I got into this truck and momentarily thought, "Oh crap." There are NO rearview mirrors in a U-haul like that, and there are no windows behind you to see out. Instead, you rely solely on your sideview mirrors. Let me tell you...I use my rearview mirror A LOT when driving in my car, so I was a bit intimidated. And, I had to REVERSE out of the parking lot. Not a good first impression, especially since the truck I now had was a good deal larger than what I wanted. But, I managed to reverse out without killing anyone or doing catastrophic damage to anything. I drove up to the seminary and some friends and I loaded up about HALF of the freaking truck (I wouldn't have needed it except I was taking my bed and my still-in-the-box computer desk that YS and YSB [Younger sister and younger sister's boyfriend] had brought me the week before). So many people walked by and said, "You have a lot more space to fill!" I said, "This truck is WAY bigger than the one I asked/paid for." Oy.

So, we loaded the truck and set off on the trip. I got more comfortable with only having sideview mirrors, and I gave myself plenty of time for everything. Also, I planned us to go a less travelled route instead of through a major metropolitan area that generally shaves about an hour off in time, but which the thought of driving a 14 foot truck through scared the living daylights out of me. So, we drove and drove and drove... Through construction areas, through "no services" signs on the exit ramps, and through slight traffic. We stopped many times for food, gas, and because my friend who was following me has a weaker bladder than I have (not that I blame her... Most people have a weaker bladder than I have). So, what I can drive (in my car) in about 10 hours and 26 minutes (I timed it once), took about 14 hours, give or take, because of that HUGE truck and because I took the "other" route. But, we got there safely, which is the main thing.

When we got to town, we went directly to J's house. Friend and I were incredibly tired by this point and asked if it'd be okay if we could unload the truck tomorrow. He said that'd be fine, so Friend and I went to the motel in town and I rented us a room. We pretty much immediately went to sleep (I was too tired to even take off my clothes). We had told J we'd be there around 8:30 or 9:00 to unload the truck, but when my alarm went off, I was like, "nooooooooo!!!!" so, I texted him and asked if we could come a bit later. J said that'd be fine; get there when you can.

So, we woke up a bit later, got cleaned up and went over to the house. We walked in the garage (only visitors actually come to the front door) and I saw my futon frame in the garage. I said, "Oh, look, he unloaded the futon frame." Friend said, "Yeah, but he had to unload lots of OTHER stuff to GET to the futon frame!" (I didn't know because she was the one who put all the stuff in the truck; I just carried it out). So, we went out to the truck, opened the back, and saw that J had single-handedly unloaded all of my stuff and had taken it either into the house or the garage. He is awesome! I knew there was a reason I was engaged to him! Haha. J/k, there are LOTS more reasons than that...

So, we hung out pretty much all day and then left town quite a bit later than we'd initially planned. We drove all night, but this time, went back the way that would save us an hour. I drove about half the way, and Friend drove the other half. When we got back to SeminaryTown, Friend slammed on the brakes because the light turned red. We looked over and saw this guy in the left turn lane and he was STARING at us; maybe because we were laughing, maybe because we're a couple of raging hotties, I don't know. But, we kept laughing, and then I noticed that he KEPT staring at us, and then he blew through the light and turned left. Weird, but whatever.

So, we got back to the seminary, and because I'd already given up my keys to the office and was officially moved out (I cleaned like a bad mamma-jamma!)I didn't really have a place to sleep a little bit more restfully before heading to Illinois. But, I went down to the recreation room that is rarely used, shut the door, and slept on one of the couches in there. At one point, the housekeeping lady opened the door, saw me sleeping, and then left again. She said later that she was just curious why the door was shut.

So, all of a sudden, I was jolted out of my slumber by the FIRE ALARM!!! I was liek "What the heck is going on?" So, I zombied my way upstairs and saw people around who said that it was not really a fire, but probably some cleaning agent or paint or something that got too near the detector. They managed to shut the alarm off before the fire department came (which is good, considering we had about 10 fire alarms this past year), and I found myself chatting with some folks. It was getting late in the morning, so I said goodbye to some people and went to Sis and BiL's house to finish planning for the wedding.

And because this post has been exceedingly long, I will talk more about life after I moved all my stuff later. I hope you are enjoying your days, and that you're staying dry.