After a week of getting upteen cuts and bruises from packing and unpacking, eating way too many greasy fast-food cheeseburgers, and getting hardly any sleep, I’m finally moved into my new apartment. As you can see from the photo here, my little car was filled to the gills, but it all worked out in the end.
The move coincided with my birthday, and my friends Rik and Wassa got me an awesome present: a subscription to Budget Travel magazine.
The firm I work for now has offices in 14 countries. It’s wishful thinking that I could possibly get a little travel on the company dime, but a girl can dream, can’t she?
Tomorrow the movers show up, and then Wednesday I’m off to D.C. with a carload of drugged-up animals. Once I’m settled in and the Internet access is up and running, I’ll resume posting. Wish me luck!
As my moving date nears, I’m studying up on the safest and easiest way to travel with my pets. It’ll be a 6 hour 30 min. car ride with three cats (in carriers) and one big dog (in seatbelt harness), so pre-planning is crucial. Each year, more and more people take their pets on vacation, so there are more options available now than ever before. Here’s some sites I’ve found with helpful info:
- Pets Welcome: Includes pet-friendly hotels in the U.S. and Canada, travel tips, and attractions that will watch your pet while you have fun.
- The Humane Society of the United States: HSUS is the authority on animal wellness issues, and the pet travel part of their site is succinct and thorough.
- TravelDog.com: This site requires a $10 membership fee, but if you frequently travel with your dog, you can save up to 65% on pet-friendly lodgings, products and services.
- The Pet Center: Great section about traveling with your cat and how to deal with motion sickness and other potential problems.
After driving 966 miles in three days, my apartment hunting trip to Washington, D.C., this weekend yielded these results:
- Interstate 81 through Virginia is the fastest route from Charlotte to D.C., but it’s boooorrring. So boring that I ate my weight in junk food just to have something to do. And thank goodness for The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts to keep me company (chimpanzee that).
- On the way to D.C., my butt fell asleep four hours into the trip (the total drive time is 6 hours 30 min.).
- I loathe that new Red Hot Chili Peppers song, “Dani California”. That’s probably why every radio station I listened to had it on repeat.
- Getting to an apartment 15 minutes before the open house pays off. I got first dibs on two places I looked at because I was able to speak privately to the landlord before the rush started.
- Believe it or not, there are landlords who will accept 100 pets at a time (or at least my four).
- The truck stop in Claytor Lake, Virginia, has the most political writing on the bathroom wall of any place I’ve visited. Lots of jabs at Republicans, democrats, Southerners and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Which is weird because it’s in the middle of nowhere and not close to D.C. Maybe lots of soon-to-be White House interns make a pit stop there.
Yesterday, I got some great big exciting news — I’ve gotten a new job and I’m moving to Washington, D.C., in a month. I’m absolutely giddy and terrified at the same time. I’ve wanted to move to D.C. for a few years now — I love the city and I have good friends that live there. It’s hard to believe it’s really happening now, and I’ve got so much to do.
Right now my focus is on packing up all my stuff (and taking a lot of it to the local thrift shop) and finding a place to live. Since I have a dog and three cats (see them on my flickr), the latter part will be no easy task. Some people think that when you move, you leave your pets behind, but I’ve made a serious commitment to take care of them no matter what. And besides, they’re my fur babies. So I’m trying to stay positive and hopefully a great apartment with an animal-loving landlord (ew, not like that!) in a safe neighborhood will pop up. (If you have any housing leads, email me.)
Hopefully, this won’t affect my Europe 2007 trip — it is still a year away, after all. Until then, I’m embarking on a great adventure. Wish me luck!