The Move

Have you ever been driving and you see someone and you think to yourself "I'm glad I'm not those morons."

We are those morons.

This is going to be a long post. Buckle up.

Rick went back to Arizona on March 1. I stayed in Utah for 2 weeks while I finished up at my job. Near the end of those 2 weeks I started getting sick. After my last day of work I made a nest in my living room with blankets, pillows, and Netflix. I didn't move for 3 days. Literally. I think I left the house once because I ran out of milk. It was sad but also kind of awesome. I have worked ever since I was 15. I don't remember what it's like to not have a job. And for 3 days I was able to sit, sleep in my nest/fort, eat, and watch seasons 1 and 2 of Grey's Anatomy. The next night, Rick and his parents came in to Provo with the truck and trailer. We got to work the next day. Ricks dad had to build the walls on the trailer, we had a lot of packing and housework to do. I woke up feeling horrible. I did as much as I could but everything I did made me exhausted. I crashed that night and woke up in the middle of the night panicked that I was going to die. I'm really rational when I'm sick. I get it from my mother. I thought I was going to die because my symptoms were a very painful sore throat and being tired all the time. For me, that means strep throat. Those are the only symptoms of strep I will get and when was little I got strep and it attacked my kidneys, they shut down, I almost needed a kidney transplant and I was in the hospital for a week. So naturally a sore throat means I'm going to die. The next day I felt worse than I remember feeling in my life. Rick said we needed to go to the Instacare. So we went, and they shoved the cotton swab down my throat and I almost barfed. I hate those things. Good news, I don't have strep, bad news, we went to the Instacare having no health insurance. Oops.

So we got back to work and got most of our stuff in boxes. We took a lot of loads of stuff to the dump or to DI. Have you been to the dump before? I would rather always have a cotton swab in my throat than have to go to the dump. It's so nasty.

We were almost done getting the house clean and getting our stuff packed up. My mother in law was doing a load of laundry when she came upstairs and said "I think I broke your washer." I went downstairs to see what was wrong and I walked into the laundry room and it smelled very strongly of burning rubber. The washing machine was full of soap, water, and clothes, but it wasn't moving. The motor had finally given up. It was an older washer so it wasn't really a surprise, and we know that our condo would have a washer and dryer in it so we didn't need to get a new one, but we still had a washing machine full of stuff that wouldn't move. I had to keep packing so my Mother-in-Law, bless her heart, got a saucepan and a bucket and emptied out all the water by hand. Done like a true pioneer.

The next day our friends Elliot, Jake, and my Dad and Sister came over to help up load everything into the trailer. We have so much crap. I cannot believe how much stuff we have. We had to give a lot of stuff away and Rick ended up storing our bikes and his drums in my grandma's garage. After 9 hours of packing, we had everything out of the house and packed and secured. We didn't rent a Uhaul, we did it the Brimhall way. Also known as the redneck way.

Seriously.

Rick's parents drove my car and we drove the truck that was pulling this beast. Our first stop was my parents house to pick up a few things before we went on our way. We drove the entire mile to my parents house and got out when Rick's dad came zooming up in my car. He said that he heard something break when we pulled out of the drive way. We did an inspection and found a broken spring.

Cool. Rick's dad called a guy who he knew would have an extra one and could fix it for us. He lives in Elberta, UT. Middle of nowhere. Turns out this guy used to be my neighbor. Talk about a small world. He was nice enough to get the part and install it for us. While he was working on the trailer, I got a phone call from one of my best friends who was at the Emergency Room because of a severe allergic reaction she had to some pain medicine. After she assured me that she wasn't going to die (again, I'm really rational) and once the truck was fixed we headed out. Again. The original plan was to drive from Provo to Phoenix and stay with my brother that night. There was no way we would make it that far, so plan B was to drive to St. George and spend the night there then drive the rest of the way the next day. So Rick's dad called a hotel in St. George and made a reservation. It took us for-ev-er to get there. We were going so freaking slow. At one point we were going 29 miles an hour and the speed limit was 75. The truck just couldn't go any faster pulling all that weight. I'm surprised no one killed us out of road rage. We figured out that we were averaging  4.89 miles per gallon. I seriously cannot believe how long it took us to get to St. George. We left Provo at 10 am and pulled into St. George at 8 pm. We were hungry, tired, and it was getting late. We pulled into the hotel and Rick's dad went to check us in. Apparently there was a mix up and we didn't have a reservation for St. George, Utah, we had a reservation for St. George, South Carolina. And there was some kind of tournament in town and every hotel was booked within a 25 mile radius. Really?

Plan C - keep driving. We drove to Kanab. We finally got to the hotel at 9:50 pm. Almost 12 hours after we had left Provo. Rick and his dad went to go get food for us. I told Rick I would eat anything but McDonalds. We all decided on chinese food. They saw a chinese place open and pulled in. As soon as they turned the car off, the lights to the restaurant turned off and a lady walked out and locked the door. Plan D - pizza. There was a pizza place next door. Rick and I wanted pizza but his dad didn't, so his dad dropped him off at the pizza place and then went to get food for he and Rick's mom. The pizza place had people inside and the lights were on. Rick walked up and the doors were locked. He called them from outside and they told him they were closed. So he called his dad who was at the gas station down the road getting me some ibuprofen (The Brimhalls take care of me). So Rick ran (literally) to where his dad was. Meanwhile, I'm wondering why it's taking them 30 minutes to find food. Finally Rick came back to the hotel with a McDonalds bag in his hand. At this point, I didn't even care. I just wanted to eat and sleep. After we were done eating we went to bed, Rick fell asleep instantly and about 20 minutes later he sat up panicked with bloodshot eyes and stared at me.

"Rick? Are you okay?"
"HM?"
"Are you okay?"
"WHAT?!"
"Sh....go back to bed"
"Why am I yelling?" he said in the softest whisper I've ever heard. He then laughed hysterically for a few minutes, put his glasses back on, and fell asleep. For the two weeks that he was in Arizona and I had the bed to myself I forgot that he did weird stuff like that.

The next day we made the long drive to Winslow, Arizona where Rick's sister lives. We were able to take a power nap, get some food, and pick up Rick's car. This is where we parted ways with Rick's parents. They are keeping my car until we are ready to move in to our condo and then they will drive it down to us and pick up their truck that we have. So now it was my time to shine. I drove Rick's car ALL BY MYSELF from Winslow to Tucson, which ended up being a 4 hour drive. Rick's car is a mazda miata, which means that while I'm driving on the freeway I am eye level with the tires on the diesels. It also means that it's a stick shift. Are you guys freaking impressed? Because you should be. There was one point where we were in bumper to bumper traffic for like 30 minutes and I was freaking out and sweating because we were stopping and going the entire time, which is the hardest part of driving a stick, but I did it and no one died.

Also, the plates on the miata were expired. Sorry dad.

We finally made it to Tucson on Sunday night. It is beautiful here. I am still sick, and it's allergy season. Or maybe I'm not sick at all and it's just allergies. Or maybe it's not allergies at all and I'm just sick. I don't know, but I take an allergy pill every day, go through a roll of toilet paper every day from blowing my nose, and have a massive headache every night. My sister in law Meagann moved to Arizona from Utah last year and she had to get a cortisone shot because her allergies were so bad. I assumed that because we are in a desert and all the plants are dead that allergies wouldn't be a problem but I've never been more wrong.

The people we're staying with are awesome. They have been so good to us. When we stayed in the hotel we kept Meeko out in the truck in his kennel wrapped in towels so he would be warm and he did great. We decided to keep him out there at night until we move into our condo (which should be ready Thursday). So we put him out there the first night we were there and a little while later Rick went outside to get something. He yelled my name and I went to where he was, he said "Do you hear that? It's the coyotes out there." It wasn't the coyotes. It was Meeko crying. We brought him back inside out of sheer guilt.

Coming soon - Rick's job, our condo, and the best Mexican food I've ever had.