Tuesday 04 November 2003

Thursday night was another all-nighter. I just couldn't sleep, anxious about the amount of work that needed to be done the next day, worried about moving to a "place" where I had no home or no job. This is about the biggest crapshoot of my life.

Friday I rented a truck from U-Haul. My destination was originally to be Appleton, and the price was about $50 more than I expected it to be. Then other options opened and I went with the flow... coping skills in tact on this move of desperation. U-Haul includes a month's free storage with their trucks. That covered the fifty. Then I learned the Appleton location didn't have a storage facility, but Oshkosh did. I changed my destination there and learned the price had dropped another $40. Awesome.

The loading and cleaning process went a lot slower than I'd expected. With no sleep since waking at 8:30am Thursday, I finally finished and turned in my keys just before midnight. I stopped at Scoreboard for a Coke and one last goodbye to Crystal, then I was off to Wal-Mart to pick up a padlock and a box of Kleenex for the trip. There I ran into two students... Davis was getting off work at midnight, and Bobbi on a late-night run for something. We shared hugs and promised to write as we'd done when we met at the library this summer.

My last phone call of the night before I left was to my mom. She knew how tired I was and said I should grab my sleeping bag and sack out on the floor, be fresh and leave in the morning. Somehow I couldn't stay in La Crosse County one more night... I had to make some progress. I stopped for a cup of coffee and made it to the first rest area off I-90, lay down across the seat, and finally got some well-deserved sleep. There are still some unresolved issues of which I have to take care, but for the most part this chapter of my life is finally closed.

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