Moving to the ABQ

OK, finally. The much-anticipated photo blog of my move to Albuquerque.

Because I'm insane and knew I was moving out of the state, I wanted to go down to South Texas to visit my nephew, Collin. He turned 6, and it was time to pay him a visit.

We had a blast. Collin and David became best friends. Also, Collin showed me his great talent of playing the "Squeeze box" as he liked to call it.
We got him a Moon in my Room (which is awesome, by the by) and David gave him his old baseball cards and old matchbox cars. Collin LOVED both. We came back Sunday night and spent the night at David's parents' house since they were out of town and our entire life was packed up in boxes. The next morning, we got to the duplex in Austin and met the movers (two GREAT guys named Art and John). They started to load the truck they rented. This is where the TRUE insanity started.

Natalie was nice enough to stay at the house while the movers were loading, so David, Brandan, my mom and I went to a taste testing at the Mansion. We had to figure out what food we were going to eat at the wedding, so we decided to eat a huge meal before we drove away was good timing. However, in the middle of the tasting, David got a call. It was the movers. They were not going to be able to fit everything in the truck. So, we hurried the taste testing and started home to make some editorial decisions on what was going with us to ABQ. On our way to drop Brandan back at home, I got an email on my phone saying there was a fraud alert on my bank account.

"Great," I think, "the LAST thing I need today."

I went upstairs to Brandan's condo, since mine was lacking Internet, to investigate the fraud while David and my mom drove back to the duplex to decide what should go into the moving truck. Turns out I had LOTS of fraudulent charges on my account. One of which was to a company called "Large and Lovely" for $98. Let's just say that wasn't mine. Did make the fraud alert specialist at Bank of America laugh out loud at my expense, however.

My mom came back to pick me up from Brandan's and we went to the banking center to sort out the mess. They were VERY helpful and nice and thank God I love my bank. They refunded me the money the guy stole from me and started the investigation into him.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my mom and I got to the duplex and realized an old desk, an old loveseat and a couple other things were not going to fit. Luckily, Natalie knew a person who was holding garage sales to raise money to travel to Europe. So, we were glad to load them into her truck and watch her pull away to donate them.

We set off.

Driving was pretty boring. We were exhausted. The car was stuffed to the gills. Poor Milo was crammed into the backseat.

Right outside of Lubbock, we encountered miles and miles of wind farms, which was really beautiful.

Well, beautiful until we reached Lubbock. It smells SO badly there. Seriously. We had to switch my air conditioning to recirculated air because, at one point, my mother was choking on the air. We got to the hotel, which allowed Milo to sleep there.

We were so tired, that my mom, David and I found the new midnight snack of champions. Wine + White Chedder Popcorn + Cool Ranch Doritos = AWESOMENESS.


The next morning, we left bright and early. We actually passed our movers driving in their truck on the way! We knew it was them because they were towing David's car.

Then, we saw our Welcome sign to New Mexico. We nearly missed it, as we are used to large, obnoxious signs of Texas. But, since we were moving to a new state, we U-turned and took a stereotypical photo next to the sign.

It wasn't long before we started seeing snow on the ground. It was a weird sight as when you rolled down the window, it was 70 degrees outside.

We arrived in Albuquerque, which was a great relief. The movers really did a great job packing everything (the only reason everything wouldn't fit was because the truck was too small, not because their packing wasn't impressive.)

Poor Milo had to be shoved in the backyard because he's slightly scared of men. And new places. And other things. So, he was pushed to play on his new swingset (and by his, I mean the family left it here)


The next morning (Wednesday), David and I woke up to snow. Yes, snow. There were huge flakes falling in our backyard. See?

Then, later in the day, it was 50 degrees and sunny. Not to mention the 50 mph wind gusts that were whipping around the city. There were ACTUAL tumbleweeds. WTF?

Now, nearly a week later, we finally have the place all set up. It looks great. My parents gave us our wedding present early (a new living room set) and that's not going to be delivered until late April. In our bedroom, my dad proved his amazing ability to arrange things artistically on our dresser.


I'll post lots of photos of the place after we get the new living room set. I'm liking the place so far and I start work tomorrow. Crazy.

Miss everyone, by the by. Missing the state of Texas, because nothing in this state is shaped like the state (with good reason).