So it took three posts. Sue me.

So, at 3, Phillip & Barron call to be let into the gate with my surprise.  As soon as I hang up the phone, Jake & Erin call and tell me they're here.  It was great, because Jake & Erin have been our best friends for two years, and they'd never had a chance to meet Phillip & Barron, who have been my best friends for twenty years.  

So, bear in mind, I've been packing all day, dealing with boxes, etc.  Imagine my surprise when Phillip & Barron present me with a box of Star Wars & Star Trek toys.  For those of you who don't know, about two years ago, shortly after I met Luke, I was robbed and cleaned out.  I mean, they took all of my old toys, my dishes that I'd inherited from my grandmother, clothes, computers, DVDs, CDs, EVERYTHING.  So this was a pretty nice gift.  But I could have killed them when I saw it was another box.

So, like I said, couldn't have done it without Jake & Erin.  We listened to Lisa Loeb as we packed and painted.  When Luke got home, there was actually very little to do, it just took FOREVER.  We finally finished painting and loading up the truck at 10:00 Thursday night, and then we had to go get a couple of things from Jake & Erin, and by that time, we were wiped.

Part of our plan involved getting Luke's paycheck (which came in on Friday) FedEx'ed to my aunt's house in Massachusetts so that we could have money for vacation, and we'd just use the $300 to get us to Texas.  Luke was worried that we wouldn't have enough money, I wasn't.  (BOY, was I wrong.  The truck itself cost OVER $300 in gas, and then we had the car, too.)  Luke made a case for staying the last night, leaving town after his paycheck arrived, and having less time in Texas, because we had a 4:00 flight to Richmond to go on this massive family vacation.  He was worried about the money, I was just fuckin' tired, so I said ok.  I hated the fact that we were going to be driving through the night, but WOW did it end up being the best option.

Now, bear in mind that a move requires communication.  Luke didn't have a cell phone.  So every hour and a half, I'd see him doing something weird, or (as he tells it) I'd THINK I'd see him doing something weird, and so I'd pull off.  Eventually, we just worked out a system that we'd stop every two, two-and-a-half hours, get out, go to the bathroom, and stretch.  Sadly, this turned a twelve hour trip into a FIFTEEN hour trip.  Poor Shayera was MISERABLE the entire time.  She never once chewed on a bone, or really do anything other than lay in her bed and gaze balefully at us until she fell asleep.

We finally got in to Texas at almost six in the morning.  The Dreiling's hide-a-key isn't in the front yard, so Luke had to vault over the fence to find it.  He couldn't, so he had to vault back over and we had to knock on the front door anyway.  Jim came in our room at about nine to get a key to the truck so they could start on our laundry, and he and Paul ended up unloading our whole truck for us.  It was crazy, and so, SO nice.

I updated the blog, went for a swim, played volleyball (Luke won, damn his time), and then we were off on vacation.  And that's where the next blog will start.