The greatest trip of my life.

Gorgeous San Diego

I'm back. And I'd like to take a full three lines of silence in recognition that the past 12 days have been, quite possibly, the craziest and worst and best of my life. Please standby.

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Thanks. Depending on how much time you've got, I'll give you both a short and long version. If you need the back story, click here or here. Here's the short version:

Started packing. Freaked out because only 0.3859% of our things were going to fit in the car (or so it seemed). Packed it anyway. Cleaned apartment. Drove out of Lebanon with a Ford Taurus that was more full than any Taurus should have to endure. Stopped in Eugene to say goodbye to Maryn. Stopped in Medford for a night with Mimi and Papa. Stopped in Elk Grove for a 20-minute dinner. Car is broken into during said dinner. Lost 4 bags, including computer. Remembered that I backed up the computer 2 weeks ago. Took a GIANT sigh of relief. Spent 2 nights in Modesto. Spent 4 nights in San Diego. Drove straight to Abilene. Pulled up in front of cute house that is now ours. Unpacked. Ate. Apologized to Taurus for all the violation we put her through. Slept. 

And here's the long version:

I'm still standing, and happily so. Things got out of control more than I would have liked, and then even more out of control, and guess what? You don't die from things being a little out of control and unpredictable (this was news to me). 

So, I'm a planner. And by that, I mean I am a planner, and I like it best when things go according to plan. When I was in high school, I stumbled across one of my dad's prayer journals from about 10 years before. In the one prayer I read (sorry Dad, hope you don't mind), he had a prayer for each of the four kids. His prayer for me said something like, "I pray that Katie will learn to adjust when things don't go her way."

That pretty much says it all (and Dad, feel free to keep this prayer around for a while, cause I'm still learning). Landon just told me the other day that my Dad even warned him of this brought this up when Landon asked for my hand in marriage. 

So basically, planning is my thing, and flexibility is not.

As we were packing the car the night before we left, I realized that about a third of what I had planned on taking was not going to fit. Luckily, we had siblings who had offered to drive down from Portland to take anything we couldn't fit, but the thought of being without my three-tiered cake stand, among other things, was getting overwhelming, and I'm pretty sure Landon experienced the "worse" of the "for better or worse" bit we said 10 months ago. 

He kept reminding me (in vain) that "It's just stuff," and "It's not going anywhere, it's just going to be stored for a while."

I had a nasty "but-you-don't-understand-this-dish-has-three-tiers!" attitude, and it felt like a little piece of my semi-materialistic heart was being torn with each box we couldn't take. I know, it sounds pretty ridiculous and it's embarrassing to even admit, but it turned out to be a pretty important night for me. I had to face my demons, which I've named "control" and "attachment to pretty things," and allow myself to be out of control and detached from pretty things for a while. 

Once I stopped hyperventilating, I cleaned the apartment and got a couple hours of sleep. We spent the next morning shoving tea bags into the center console and accepting the fee for forgetting to clean the oven before we drove off. At that point, I had two bags under my legs, two bags on my lap and one on the center console between Landon and I. It was rather uncomfortable cozy.

Packed in real tight!

We stopped in Eugene to say goodbye to my dear friend Maryn before making it to Medford to stay with Landon's grandparents, Mimi and Papa. Staying with Mimi and Papa is always so relaxing. Their house is peaceful, they speak gently and they always have great stories to tell. It turns out they packed up a car and moved to Colorado after just eight months of marriage, so they could relate to our little adventure. 

We woke up to the sun pouring in at Mimi and Papa's house

 We also got to meet the newest addition to the family, sweet little Adalaide (see her adorable shower here)!

Meeting little miss Adalaide

We were Modesto-bound the next day, and had a great drive until our stop in Elk Grove for dinner. The neighborhood seemed fine, and it had just gotten dark when we stopped at Five Guys for a quick 20-minute dinner. When we came out, I was waiting for Landon to unlock the car when I heard him say "Uhh, there's glass everywhere over here…our car was broken into." 

Taurus, post break-in

Cue feelings of deflation and idiocy. It turns out that parking a clearly overloaded car in a parking spot that is not visible from the restaurant after the hour of 8pm is not a good idea. They took 4 bags, including my computer, two ipods, lots of clothes and the bags themselves. The most tragic loss was my blanket, which I've wrapped around my pillow every night since before I can remember. I'll save the many blanket stories for another post (and no, I do not suffer from infantilism, I just like a little softness and warmth when my ear hits the pillow each night, can you blame me?). 

But in that terrible mix of feeling upset and violated, and thinking "if I had only…", there was a thought that really comforted me. It's just stuff, I repeated to myself as drove to Modesto with rain coming through our broken car window. Landon was right, it's just stuff.

I secured my backed-up external hard drive the next day, which made the computer loss a little less of a blow. We spent two nights in Modesto at Kim and Wayne's house, and it was about the best place to be while we began all the arrangements with our insurance and got the car repaired. Kim was my mom's college roommate, and is one of her closest friends. Her hug the night after the break in was like having my mom there. Kim and Wayne's hospitality rivals any bed and breakfast: gorgeous setting, socks on the pillow, super comfy bed, fresh fruit and yogurt for breakfast, concierge service to the window repair shop, strawbs and ice cream for dessert, the list goes on. It was such a blessing to be there and unwind from a rough weekend.

View from our window at Kim and Wayne's house

Like I said, Kim's hospitality is top notch!

We left Modesto for San Diego, where we spent four days. It was great to see friends, family and California burritos again. We stayed with Landon's grandparents, who allowed us to unpack our entire car and leave all of our things in their dining room so that we wouldn't be such an obvious target for thievery while driving around San Diego. We had great conversations about Grandma growing up in North Dakota, real honey vs. corn-syrup boosted honey, and why Moroccan sardines are the best kind around (according to Grandma and Landon, that is. I wasn't brave enough to try them). 

Acai bowl! Nom nom nom!

We met Renee and Megan for breakfast, had a photo shoot with Angie, chatted over California burritos with James, enjoyed breakfast with Coach Arvin, went to a Padres v. Mariners game with Charles, and shared a giant acai bowl in Ocean Beach. It was like a mini-vacation in the middle of what was shaping up to be a crazy move. 

Padres v. Mariners game

Con Pane with Renee and Megan! Yum!

By Sunday morning, the car was re-packed (somehow I still ended up with bags on my lap, even though all of the bags I had previously had on my lap were stolen) and we enjoyed the service at Flood before heading east for Abilene. We left San Diego at 11:35am, drove straight through Arizona and New Mexico and arrived in Abilene at 10:45am local time (8:45am San Diego time). 

At 8:30pm Sunday, we stopped for gas somewhere in Arizona and had a minor freakout of the if-the-car-breaks-down-anytime-in-the-next-twelve-hours-we're-done-zo variety. But after that, it was one of the greatest drives of my life. Hardly anyone on the road, Tina Fey's Bossypants audio book coming through the stereo, watching Landon eat Moroccan sardines for dinner in the car, and knowing that when we got to Abilene we didn't have to drive anymore. We made it through Arizona and New Mexico, entering Texas sometime around 1am. 

By 6am, the sky was turning a lighter blue and I could start to see the vastness that was around us. There was nothing but hills covered in shrubs, and it made for a gorgeous, breathtaking, and blinding (for Landon, who was driving) sunrise. I'm not sure, but I think the sun is bigger in Texas. 

One of the best sunrises I've ever seen

We pulled into Abilene at 10:45am, got our keys and a quick "please don't host crazy parties at your house" talk from the campus housing gal before pulling up to a sweet little house on the corner that is ours for the next two years. Two bedrooms, one bath, no dishwasher, and lots of charm because it's way bigger than our Lebanon apartment and half the price. 

Our new little house

We unpacked, had lunch with the HSU cross country/track coach and high-fived each other BIG TIME because we made it! I am so proud of Landon for pursuing this goal that he's had for so long, and I'm thrilled to be a part of this journey with him. Getting from Lebanon to Abilene was full of more adventure than I would have planned, but you know what I learned? You can't plan everything, and usually things turn out better when you leave them to God's plan.

Also, it's just stuff.

Xoxo.