When I accepted my new job in NYC last August, I had a matter of weeks to wrap up my PNW chapter and get across the country. So much to do, so little time!
There was no way I was going to pay to move any furniture from Seattle to New York. I’d done that from Houston, and it was far too expensive to be worth it — I didn’t know that I’d have space for it all anyway. My car wouldn’t make the move either. I barely needed it in Seattle, so I definitely didn’t need to pay to get it to and park it in Manhattan.
Kyle was leaving Seattle and going back to Buffalo at the same time (seeing as we both started at Edelman Seattle the day after Labor Day 2015, it seemed fitting that we had the same last day almost exactly three years later). And he was only taking what fit in his Honda. This meant we had a couple of weeks to empty an entire apartment full of stuff.
Anyone who has ever used OfferUp (or I’m sure any similar app) to sell or give away anything understands that it’s basically the Tinder of selling things. The people were flaky, they’d say they wanted something and then disappear. Or even worse, they’d show up with absolutely no game plan for getting the furniture out of my bedroom and to their home. There was the girl who arrived alone with no idea how she was getting the extremely heavy dresser she was buying to her vehicle (she wasn’t even sure it’d fit in said vehicle). There was the guy who was smart enough to bring tools to take apart the bed frame — but who was so ridiculous that he basically ordered me around and made me carry it all downstairs and to his SUV with him. And then had the audacity to get frustrated with me when I didn’t follow all of his instructions exactly to his liking. No thank you. It was an experience in the human condition, and it was not pleasant. At least we were able to empty the apartment of the biggest, heaviest things relatively quickly. And the local Goodwill really cleaned up with what was left.
Since Kyle needed to get his car across the country too, the move became a road trip! I obviously could’ve taken a flight and saved 5 days, but how often would I have the chance to drive across the country? And how much better was it to arrive in NYC with a second opinion on housing options? So we packed up Kyle’s Honda (including the small, pink carry-on suitcase that would hold my life until my boxes made it to NYC) and hit the road bright and early on a September Saturday morning.
It was a four-day drive, we stopped in Livingston, Montana; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; South Bend, Indiana (home of Notre Dame University and a super adorable little town); and ultimately Buffalo.
I saw real, live tumbleweed (is tumbleweed alive?) rolling across the freeway somewhere out West. We listened to the most ridiculous true crime podcast where the host was constantly stating supremely obvious facts. We drove through Chicago at rush hour, which I’d be ok with never doing again. And we sang along to Taylor Swift’s 1989 from Kyle’s glove compartment multiple times a day (that CD just never gets old, perfection).
The trip was long and exhausting, but I’m definitely glad I didn’t just hop a plane. It was truly a once-in-lifetime experience that I’ll always remember. In the words of our girl TayTay, “Welcome to New York, it’s been waiting for you.”