Adventures of HG at NRTI

(Photos courtesy Heather Cantos)

I decided to move Wednesday morning, the day after my going-away party. Luckily we didn’t stay out too late but I was exhausted by the time I got home at around 2200 hours (10:00 p.m. for civilians). I think the emotional toll of leaving all of my friends and family finally set in. So I came home, opened my gifts, took a shower and headed to bed. I don’t think I got my sleep as my nerves were going a thousand miles a minute but I knew in my heart that this was the best thing for me. Change is always scary, but if you do it right, it can turn out for the better. Anyhow, back on to Day 1, which is moving day. Ed and I headed to Towson to pick up the Penske truck and stop by my boss’ house to pick up some furniture she so kindly donated. After picking up that stuff and saying a tearful goodbye, we headed back to Aberdeen to pick up the rest of my stuff from my mom’s house. I had about half of a garage full of boxes and what not that needed to be loaded into the truck. Ed, Heather, Hope, my mom, Halo (the dog) and even Braydon (my 9 month old nephew-pictured above) all chipped in and lent a helping hand. We filled the truck, an SUV and my car full of stuff. Granted, we could have fit it all in the Penske, but we were taking all 3 cars anyway, so it didn’t matter.



Once we got everything packed up nice and tight, I said my goodbyes for the long 6 month journey, and we set out on a caravan towards Ohio. We were doing pretty good until Hope (the little sister) pulled over 15 minutes down the road to tell us she forgot her phone. We waited at the rest stop until my mom could bring the phone to us. That was not a good start to the day. Anyhow, my mom met up with us 15 minutes later, we said our goodbyes, again, and hit the road for a second time. We had a very long 7 hour journey ahead of us and my cat, Feisty, was not happy at all. Even after giving her a sedative, she was still wild and was determined to let me know how much she hated her cage. She didn’t stop meowing in the front seat of my car until about 3 hours later.



At almost exactly 7 hours later we arrived at our destination-Nelsonville, Ohio. There’s basically nothing here, except my house, a highway right outside my door (literally-pics to follow), and the school I will be attending. When we arrived, there was barely any daylight left, so we scurried to unload the vehicles and packed everything in the house. By the time we all made it inside and closed the door, we realized the heat was turned down to about 52, so I set it higher and went back to unpacking. After about 2 hours of unpacking boxes in the house, I realized the temperature wasn’t going anywhere. I put in a call to the landlord and thankfully he called me back immediately. He informed me that the heat was working the prior day and she be fine now. After I explained to him what was going on, he told me I could look at the furnace itself and try to relight it, otherwise he would have a guy out in the morning. Well, after proceeding downstairs to look at the furnace, I realized that the downstairs of my apartment used to be a bar and this was actually an industrial-sized furnace that I knew nothing about. Rather than chance it, I just left it alone. We all bundled up for the night and tucked ourselves in for the long haul. Unfortunately, no heat was not the only issue this apartment had thrown my way. Like I said before, this house nearly sits on the highway (US 33) and every car, truck, snowplow, dirt bike, etc. can be heard and is echoed through my house. For those of you from Maryland, Ed compared this ordeal to putting your bed in the middle of the Harbor Tunnel and letting the cars pass you on either side with no protection. The guys working on the upstairs of the house (the second apartment) also failed to change a battery in a failing smoke detector the previous day, so we were forced to listen to the constant annoying beep all night long. I don’t think any of us slept a wink the first night. Not to mention, I came down with some horrific 24 hour flu or something of the sorts because my insides came out and I was up sick the entire night.