Dear Familia,
So sorry for the lack of communication as of late. It was a little crazy getting everything ready for the move up here to Boston. Zane and I had originally planned on asking Dean to use his SUV to make the 8 1/2 hour drive to bring my stuff up here. I didn't really have a lot except clothes, books, and a ton of random craft supplies. Then, my roommate Amanda asked if I wanted to go in on a moving truck. She was coming up from North Carolina and would have to go through DC anyway. I thought it was a great idea so that Zane wouldn't have to make two 8 1/2 hour trips in one weekend. I decided it would be a good idea to see what other big items I could procure so that I didn't have to find a lot of stuff up here. I found a bed on craigslist, Mrs. Ramadan gave me quite a few things, and I made an ikea run before we left. I was majorly stressed about finding parking for the moving truck in Georgetown, but it all worked out pretty perfectly (thanks to some hard work from my lovely fiancé). We loaded up on Friday and hit the road at 5:30 am on Saturday morning. Then the fun began...
It was pretty smooth for the first few hours. We stopped somewhere in Delaware for gas and breakfast. We of course went to McDonald's because I think it might be an unwritten law that you have to stop at a McD's at least once on a road trip. Haha.
We made it to New Jersey with no problems. They have ridiculously expensive tolls, but I can't really say that there was anything else of note while traveling through. Oh, it did smell really weird for a 30 minute stretch somewhere in NJ (wait, is that the state abbreviation??).
Really up until we got to New York it was smooth sailing. No traffic even. We should have realized that we were due for something crazy to happen. And it did. We got to the toll to go over the George Washington Bridge entering NYC and there was a sign that said "trucks use upper level." Because we had been warned that these signs usually meant semis and we had had luck not using the truck lane back in New Jersey, we decided to go to the lower level. We were definitely wrong though and the lady at the booth said that her manager would have to stop traffic so we could cut through the lanes and loop back around to get on the right level.
The photo above makes it look like perhaps there wasn't a lot of traffic and it wasn't a big deal. Well the manager had actually made an announcement that we needed to pass and for about 30 seconds people didn't go...and then they went...and we hadn't made it through! There was a lot of honking and near accidents, but we somehow made it in one piece to the other side where the was a police officer waiting to check out cargo. For what? I have no idea, but he must not have found anything good b/c he let us pass through.
Then we were able to cross the GW bridge and it was gorgeous and the views were amazing. See exhibits above and below :)
Anyway, after the bridge snafu, things were good through New York and into Massachusetts. We stopped somewhere outside of New Haven I believe to get subway. They were not stingy with the veggies which always makes me happy since I'm ordering a veggie sub. It kills me when they put literally 3 slices of green pepper across my sandwich or 5 olives or what have you. So annoying.
Massachusetts definitely gets the best sign awards. Their interstate signs have pilgrim hats on them! What the heck adorable. Amanda had to kinda pull over/drive really slow so I could get this shot. I'm sure the other cars on the road loved us ;)
We made it all the way to our exit off the interstate without getting lost, but we got lost pretty much as soon as we got off and got into Cambridge. I thought DC was a mess road wise, but Cambridge is ridiculous. It would have been a lot easier if we had known that even though we were heading East on Mass Ave that would still somehow get us to Somerville (my town) which is West of Cambridge. Don't ask me. Pure craziness.
The next morning we went to Thomas' house (he lives in Cambridge right now) so that he could move his big stuff while we had the truck. On the way we stopped by this furniture store near our house and ended up walking away with a free desk and chair for me. I was super excited. Amanda also found some very cheap chairs for her room and a screen thing that she is going to get crafty with and do some sort of photo display. I'm excited to see it. Thomas didn't have that much (boys definitely live light) so it got done pretty quick and we then we decided to make an Ikea and Target run. I loaded up the things I needed to take back (since I ended up with the free desk and chair and had picked up some other things we really didn't end up needing) and we hit the road. Of course we get there and I realize I didn't have my dang receipt! Ikea can't look up receipts so I was a bit angry, but then I let the wave of mass produced cheap furniture euphoria wash over me. We spent far too much time there (is it even possible to get out of Ikea in less than 3 hours??) and I was so fried at Target I ended up getting 2 things...one that I didn't even need.
On the way back to get one more thing from Thomas' house we were asking him why exactly he wanted to leave since his place was nice and close to his work. And then we turn on to his street and see...
Some sort of drug bust type situation. Less than a block from his house. We understood completely after that and were happy that he decided to stay at the new place that night. When we took the moving truck back and witnessed a possibly bike theft. A nice enough looking girl and guy were very rapidly disassembling a bike that was locked up. I asked them what they were doing and they said they had lost the key, but I'm still a little sketched out. On the way back I got to take my first official ride on the T as a Harvard student from Harvard Square. Oo la la, no??
For dinner Sunday we wanted to step out of the big chain box and used an iPhone app (not sure which one since I don't have an iPhone but two of my roommates do) to find a delicious Thai restaurant called...Yummy Thai!!! It was indeed yummy. I accidentally left behind a piece to my bed that had been in the truck when we dropped it off and it was pretty hilarious when I called back trying to explain it to the server that didn't really know that much English. Amanda was laughing really hard as I said "It's a silver stick thing" when he didn't understand my first description.
So that was moving-in weekend. This post was entirely too long, but I hope you enjoyed it. Miss everyone very much!
Love,
Jem
