The Move

I'm here! I made it! And I have a place to call home! 

Talk about a whirlwind - a week ago I was still working in Madison by day, and organizing my belongings by "Keep", "Sell", "Donate", and "Trash" by night. 

I decided that the twenty-two-plus hours that I would be spending in the car to drive from Madison to St. Pete was more valuable to me spent in St. Pete looking for places to live than spent in the car, so I decided to ship my car and then fly down to meet it.

This was only day 1 of car packing. I stuffed pillows, shoes, cookbooks, and other odds and ends into the nooks and crannies. The stuff in my car could not budge. 

I harnessed my Tetris skillz and made sure there was not a square inch of empty space in that car.

Baking sheets, pizza stone, and front wheel of my bike all stuck behind the driver's seat. A synthesis of my priorities, really.

And then my baby got loaded onto a semi and locked down for the long trip!

All snuggled in for the long trip!

I must have been feeling particularly accomplished at this point, because the next day I managed to hoist my upholstered headboard onto the top of a car and strap in down for the drive over to the UPS store. 

If you have any heavy lifting needs, clearly I'm your girl.

On Friday I flew down with three stuffed suitcases and met my dad in St. Pete. He didn't arrive until later, so we decided to post up someplace where we could watch the Nats and get a bite to eat before we began our search for a roof for me to sleep under. 

 

The Guinness was delightful, the game was heart-wrenching.  Ate some of the best sweet potato fries ever. It's a double-edged sword that this place is so close to my new digs.

Next morning - bayfront run, quick shower, then House Hunters - St. Pete begins! Seriously, how did people ever do this without Zillow and Craigslist?

We tooled around checking out complexes and different neighborhoods, but it seems the real estate market takes their weekends seriously down here, and only one of five places was able to show me an apartment.

Luckily I already had a lead on a house from another person working at the paper, so we went over to check it out. The house is in a great neighborhood right downtown and it came with built-in roommates/friends, which is nice when you're moving someplace where you don't really know anyone. 

Then my baby arrived!

I know it looks exactly like the photos fro Madison, but clearly I'm in Florida. Note the palm trees.

I made sure that everything was safely intact in the car, and then we got a call confirming that the house was going to work out. Hooray! How should we celebrate? Bloody Mary's of course.

With that weight off our shoulders, we headed over to the neighborhood sports bar to watch the Notre Dame game. Dad got to hang out with one of his college roommates who lives in St. Pete, so we were all pretty happy.

On Sunday we took care of the business aspects of my new digs. Sublease signing, hand shaking, and bag unpacking. We had a little downtime before Dad had to get on his flight, so we drove over to the beach.

It's a little surreal that I'm just a short drive to my happy place. To realistically wake up on a Saturday and read on the beach for a couple hours kind of blows my mind. Granted, it's nerve-wracking to think of all the new things that are heading my way, but I'm also excited to take on the challenge.

CFL will return to normal soon - anything sound particularly delicious?