"Is it just madness keeping us afloat?"

We survived moving. I think maybe yesterday or the day before was the first day we woke up and did not feel agonizing pain. Look, no one likes moving, so we all know I've nothing new to say on the matter and can let that go. However. I would like to say, I never truly hated moving before this last one. Let's start with this idea:

If you have not moved with only one other person helping, you have no idea what I'm talking about. You can say, oh yes, moving is awful, it's so hard and it's terrible. No. If you've even had one extra set of hands helping you move, it is nothing like what we did. Nothing. Three people is heaven compared to two people. More than one person helping you? Moving suddenly becomes as awesome as Ron Swanson. It was certainly a lesson in how far you can push your body. It took us 6 1/2 hours to load the truck. Short break for lunch. Another almost 7 hours to unpack the truck. Ed was the true work horse, carrying dressers, bookshelves, massive boxes, all on his own. On the pack up, my job was to just keep moving stuff out of the house. On the unpack, my job was to get it up the stairs to our apartment. You know your body is telling you it has had enough when it doesn't hurt to carry the massive box up the stairs, but it hurts like hell when you're walking back down the steps for the next box.

Bye evil squirrels who napped in this tree

Bye lovely patio and courtyard

I'll miss all the space...

Seeya Solano!

Biggest blisters I have ever seen. Bruises and cuts everywhere. Lower limbs completely frozen stiff. My face maintained it's reddish, sunburn-like flush for 3 days after. I was grumpypants. It's a miracle I did not lose my mind on Ed, but boy was I close. Especially when we started moving in and our downstairs neighbor came out to smoke a total of 10 cigarettes during the whole process. Honestly, I say this all the time to Ed, but who smokes anymore?! And this guy has a toddler and a baby on the way! I'm always shocked when I see people smoke now. I was really surprised when Will McAvoy smoked in an episode of Newsroom. I'm aware a huge part of the world still smokes and I've never smoked myself so I know that's why I don't understand. Two things always surprise me: 1. People who consistently drink Soda (with every meal, or even one can daily - instead of having soda as an occasional dessert or a random craving) and 2. People who smoke. I'm no saint. I drink. I eat poorly. I don't exercise. But for whatever reason those two listed habits always surprise me when I encounter them. Anyways, I was on the brink of losing my mind when this man came out to smoke because our apartment has no air conditioning so we have to keep our windows open. In my broken down state I was imagining a year spent with all of our things smelling of smoke and it wafting in the window all day and night. Awful. Tears were shed. Everything seemed to be the worst. We had clearly made a terrible, horrible life choice. The world was ending. But then we finished moving and we put ourselves to bed after taking what can only be called the greatest shower I have ever had in the history of time, and things started to seem a little bit better.

Le Sigh

This was after some serious clearing. It was much worse.

It's been a couple days and it has been just fine. The cats adjusted within minutes - although Leo did break out of the window and prance around the courtyard at 11:30pm. They also enjoy the ridiculous number of cats living here that are chatty and friendly. See below. Almost everything is unpacked and in it's rightful place. The study is the last bastion of the boxed things. I think I'll be leaving that for post-wedding/honeymoon activity.

We had a nice conversation, until Rosie showed up and scared him off.

The area is really nice. We had an amazing Turkish dinner the other day and tonight we'll be taking advantage of the Whole Foods that is 3 minutes from us. Downtown Campbell is an historic area, and they seem to try hard to provide it's residents with activities. In October we're flying back to Blacksburg, VA for an Oktoberfest at Mountain Lake Hotel (where Dirty Dancing was filmed) and the weekend after that we'll be having an Oktoberfest celebration here in Campbell with a 5k fun run. They have lots of community recreational activities (Why, hello sewing class and mountain survival hike...), big Christmas celebrations.... I'm looking forward to all of it. All in all, it's not so bad being back in an apartment, and we couldn't have found a better area.

In terms of everything else? We fly back tomorrow!!!! I cannot believe a year of planning and living out here in California has flown by so quickly. The wedding is in one week, and it looks like everything might work out! It does not appear to be a disaster! :) I'm as shocked as you are, believe me. Once again, I can only say thank you, thank you, thank you, to the bridal party, to my family, to Ed's family, and everyone that has worked so hard to make this happen and will work so hard to see it go off without a hitch next weekend. I'm eternally grateful and I will never be able to repay you. Well, maybe Ck and Kate when it comes to their weddings :) See you guys soon!