road trip: day 1 (raleigh bound)

travel time: 4 hrs. 45 min.
distance: 317 miles
average speed: 75mph

i loaded up my car this morning praying that all of the 'to take' items would fit in my saturn ion. and they did, but barely. sometime next month i will have to fly back to pick up the dog and the rest of my things (thanks to my parents on both accounts), rent a van, and make one more cross country trip. even though i am leaving much behind, the essentials and pseudo essentials had to be stuff, shoved, pulled and pushed into every nook and cranny of available space in the vehicle.

saying goodbye is always hard, and i have been trying to avoid 'real' goodbyes as much as possible, resorting to 'see you later's and 'talk to you soon's. but saying farewell to the folks was tough. mom tried to remain unemotional, with little success, and leaving the driveway i couldn't help but reflect on how much i had enjoyed sharing the same house with them again for the last few years. i am fortunate to not only love my folks, but to like them too. at some point soon, i will have to pay tribute to all of the ones i've left behind, but for now, i am focused on the getting to where i'm going.

the drive to julie and colby's in raleigh was largely uneventful. laura called to check in on me and near the end of the conversation as we got to talking about why the blog change. as a result, she googled me, and landed upon my old address. that's when we learned that it had been taken over by a porn spammer type page. i imagine that many someone's out there are very clever and have a way of finding recently released addresses. and i imagine that they probably try and take over sites that get a decent number of hits, and for better or worse, i have. unfortunately, i don't know everyone who reads my blog, and there are some who didn't 'get the memo' about the change. it is mortifying that those people will get a great deal more than expected. i've contacted blogger to see what can be done, but as of yet, no response.

i'll be honest...it's been kind of a rough week. my work situation changed unexpectedly on monday, and the job i thought i had until mid-november is no longer so. i've been overwhelmed, panicked, flustered--you name it. i was feeling after that conversation with laura, that i really needed something to go right.

and tonight, something did.

many of you know that my car has been having problems for over a year now. it's a problem that only surfaces in warmer temperatures, and it has been in the shop multiple times in an effort to fix it. the problem is that when idling, the temperature gauge would skyrocket and the ac would stop working. it didn't take long, so i could be sitting at a stoplight and my car would start overheating. the only solution was to turn on the heat at full blast, which was mighty uncomfortable in mid-july, let me tell you! it was a constant source of fear for me, and i begged off driving friends anywhere for fear i'd get stuck and have to sweat them out.

someone suggested i try replacing the thermostat, but it turned out that would prove more difficult than expected. all along, i had planned to have colby look at it when i got here. nick took a preliminary look last night, and gave colby a heads up about potential complications. when i got here, colby did a bit of fiddling. after a run to the parts store, and colby's threat to sabotage my car, thereby forcing to camp out in nc for awhile, a phone call was made to a local ward member/mechanic, who told me to bring the car right over.

long story short, a series of coincidences unfolded, and after two hours, a lot of head scratching, and some pure 'luck', the problem i have been dealing with for over a year now was fixed. and it didn't cost me a cent. now i am left trying to figure out how such a gesture is adequately repaid...for the first time in a long time, i got in my car without fear, and that is an amazing gift.
after departing, julie and i hit the wal-mart for a few necessities i had not had a chance to pick up before leaving. we forgot that we were in my packed car, and there was no room for our purchases. we made it work, but poor julie was a bit crunched.

tomorrow i will spend the majority of the day here, enjoying the new pool, and eagerly awaiting colby's promised steak dinner (anne..remember how yummy that was?). tomorrow night i'll head to savannah where i'll attempt to get some good sleep before playing there the following day.