Hey! Look! Lemony Snicket wrote a book about my first week in Seattle!
So I'm finally in Seattle but it wasn't easy getting here. I never thought my journey here would go so awry. The first unfortunate event was that my old man canceled renting the U-Haul truck 2 DAYS before we were supposed to leave. Part of me knew he would back out of it from the beginning but I was hoping that he wouldn't live up to my expectations of him. Nonetheless, I was very upset when he told me because I had been packing for weeks so I had to go through every box and decide which of my possessions I'd take and what I'd leave behind. This process also took away from time I had planned to spend with my friends so that only added to my discontent.
We began our journey from Phoenix to Seattle on May the 29th around 12pm. I must say, I am very skilled in the art of car packing. I loaded up every possible nook and cranny. I finally got to apply my Pokemon Puzzle League skills to a real life situation! Luckily, I remembered to pack my Harry Potter audio books because otherwise I think I might have gone insane from the drive. Sitting in the car for extended periods of time is very difficult for those of us with anxiety disorder so the audio books proved to be a wonderful distraction and a great way to pass the time. We got through almost all of the first three books throughout our journey.
So that first day we drove to Phoenix and the drive went pretty smoothly. We stayed at the Super 8 because we stayed there last time we went to Disneyland and it was comfortable for the price. All day I'd been looking forward to swimming in the pool but when we got there 3 huge buses full of brats pulled in. By the time we got to the pool, it was like the apocalypse had arrived. Brats were everywhere. There was not a foot of space left in the pool and it was utter chaos. I couldn't handle it. We sat in the hot tub for about 5 minutes before I freaked out and had to get out. My dad suggested then that we go to Downtown Disney for a spell and I was totally keen on this idea. I had never been to the "World of Disney" gift shop there and it was pretty overwhelming. It just went on and on and on and on...I was good though. I only bought one Thumper pin to add to my pin collection (I get a new pin every time I visit Disneyland). After that we had dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Anaheim, Los Sanchez. When we finished our dinner the fireworks show had just started at the park so we watched it from the parking lot. I think I appreciate fireworks more from a distance. On our way back to the motel I convinced my dad to stop at this Italian ice place that I'd been wanting to try since I was a little girl, Joe's Italian Ice and Ice Cream. It was really good. Not as good as Bahama Bucks (back home) but it was a nice treat after a long day.
We got up pretty early the next morning and were back on the road at 8:30am. I'd been dreading that day of driving the most since that stretch of California is not much to look at. We drove for about 9 hours that day. My dad had wanted to drive all the way to Redding but decided to stop for gas in Willows first. When we pulled out of the gas station, the second unfortunate event occurred. My car started shifting funny. It would sort of jerk every time it would shift gears. I knew this was bad so I talked my dad into staying in Willows for the night. There was a Super 8 right next to the gas station so we decided to stay there. Sweet baby Jesus, what a dump. The tv barely worked, the batteries in the remote kept dying, there was a beetle in my bed, the whole place smelt like curry and the light in the bathroom was shaky so it totally messed up your vision. The next morning my dad called the tow truck guy and he said he could tow us to Chico, CA. Apparently, my car was too loaded up for him to bring his regular truck so he had to bring this monster old one with no air conditioning, no seat belts and it only went 35 mph. It took about an hour for us to get to Chico and a bee landed in my lap along the way and scared the bejesus out of me.
When we got to the transmission shop they were just clocking out to lunch so we had to wait an hour in their waiting room. When they came back it took them about 2 hours to inspect my car and after they did they said my transmission had to be rebuilt. This process would normally have taken 3 days but since they had started on it so late in the day and would be closed on Sunday he told us it wouldn't be ready til Monday. It was Wednesday at this point so I was completely devastated that we'd be stuck in Chico for 5 days MINIMUM with no car. It was all I could do to not start bawling in the transmission shop. The owner was nice though, and dropped us off at yet another Super 8. This would be our home for almost a week. Again, I had the good sense to bring my N64 and Majora's Mask with me or else I might've lost my damn mind. I came pretty close too. It was hot as ballz in Chico the duration of our stay so we were pretty much trapped in the motel all day. We filled the time by either sleeping, flicking through bad cable tv or playing Nintendo for hours at a time (dad slept during this activity). It was so frustrating; I had a pretty steady panic attack those 5 days, no...6 days. They didn't wind up finishing til 4pm on Monday so we ended up just staying another night. Thank God Chico had a Trader Joe's within walking distance of our motel or I might've starved to death. If anything, this horrible experience made me at least feel grateful that I wasn't born in Chico.
So the money that my dad thought he'd be saving from not renting the U-haul, he spent that and WAY more on having my transmission rebuilt and spending 6 days in a motel. Tuesday morning we got the car back and were back on the road by 8:30am. My old man couldn't bear another night in a motel so we decided to just drive all the way to Seattle. We were on the road for 13 hours. It was god-awful. My body ached for days afterward. We got to Seattle around 9pm and it was dark and raining like crazy. I still can't believe that we were able to find the apartment in the dark. Google maps had told us that we would be able to make a left onto the street that I lived on but in reality you have to turn 2 streets before that and then make several other turns to get in through the back. When we found the correct cross streets we had no idea which complex was mine. I'd seen a pic on Google Streetview so I knew I was looking for a white building. I decided to just get out of the car and look. I was wearing flip flops and a light hoodie (with no glasses) and I had to walk down this hill that was at nearly a 45 degree angle. I'm amazed I didn't slip and fall to my death. When I had tracked down the right apartment I knocked on the door but no one answered. Dad and I figured we could leave her a note and just wait in the car til she got home. I wrote a note but tried the bell one more time and she answered.
My first impression of my new room was less than desirable. The closet was broken and the former tenant had left tape all over the walls and my roommate had just fed her cat so the place smelt like cat food. On top of that I had no bed so we had to sleep on air mattresses for 2 days. The next day we went to have my brakes looked at since my apartment is surrounded by huge hills and my dad was worried my brakes would give out. They had the car most of the day so I set up my computer while my dad waited at the Econo Lube. The day after that we went mattress shopping. There were about 5 mattress stores on the same street and we went in all of them. We wound up going with the last shop on the block. I'm pretty pleased with my bed. Mama needed a firm mattress.
We called my mom pretty much everyday since we'd left and she sounded worse every time we talked to her so my dad decided it was best if he went home on Saturday. This was a bummer because we had planned to do all of the touristy stuff here together. It was also a bummer because I still had no furniture in my room other than my bed and wasn't at all confident that I'd be able to build it myself after he left. When I moved to Oregon in 2008 he bought me a bed and then left me there with no furniture. It was totally uncool. I had planned on getting all of my furniture at IKEA but the moment we walked in the door he was like, "This is all junk. I'm not buying anything here." Personally, I like IKEA. I like the simplicity of their designs. Anyway, so Thursday we went to Goodwill (which was a bitch to find) and they had NOTHING. It was the worst Goodwill I've ever been to. We went to a couple stores after that and nobody had anything. So Friday was our last day to find me some furniture so my dad agreed to try IKEA. This time he had a much better attitude (I think he also knew he'd be in dutch with my mom if he came home again without buying me any furniture). We looked at EVERYTHING in IKEA and it turned out to be really fun. He got me a dresser, a desk, a desk chair, a lamp and some other various whatnots. We even ate at their restaurant and had some yummy lentil soup.
When we got home we took a break and watched some "Breaking Bad". We watched like, 15 episodes in the 3 days that he was here. I'm totally addicted to it now. We didn't start building the furniture til about 7:30pm and I was really doubtful that we'd finish it by the time he had to leave but we did it! We built until 1:30am but we finished it! We'd never built anything together before and it turned out to be a lot of fun. It was a total team effort too. He said he wouldn't have been able to do it without me. He said it was a "two brain project" :) Now whenever I look at my furniture I can think to myself, "Team Price built that shit!"
The next morning was hard. My dad's flight was at 11:10am so I dropped him off at the airport at 9am. It was so difficult saying goodbye. I'm crazy about my old man. He's amazing. I couldn't have asked for a better father. Through this whole adventure he was so kind, generous, supportive, and just wonderful. When I drove away from the airport I got super emotional. I'd gotten so used to having him around 24 hours a day for the past 11 days and now I'm alone in a city I don't know. I bawled for about 2 hours when I got home then I watched some more "Breaking Bad". I had ordered a cell phone the day before and I paid for overnight shipping so I was hoping it would come that day. It didn't.
So began the third unfortunate event. I had decided to go with Boost Mobile since I was very intrigued with their shrinkage program and being able to have unlimited everything for $55/month. If you ordered online you could use a coupon to get $20 off so I decided to go with that instead of buying it at the store. Man, I wish I'd just bought it at the store. I paid extra for the overnight shipping so it would get here by Saturday...I didn't wind up getting it til Tuesday. And I had a hell of a time tracking it down. Fucking FedEx. FedEx is pretty high on my Enemy's List now. I was able to track my package so on Monday when I checked on its status it said it had been delivered and signed for by a J. Florez. I was like, "Why would somebody else sign for my package? I've been here all day?" So I started knocking on doors hoping that someone in my building would have it. Since it was about 1pm naturally nobody was here but the repair guy saw me knocking on a door and was like, "Do you need some help?" I explained to him that somebody had signed for my package and I was trying to locate that person. I called the property manager to see if she knew of anyone by that name. She didn't answer so he left a message and said he'd come get me if she called back. I waited around some more and emailed FedEx a nasty email saying that I didn't understand how a third party was allowed to sign for my package and if my package didn't get returned to me I was gonna raise hell. After a few hours I decided to knock on some more doors. No luck. I ran into some other dudes in my building and they let me use their phone to call the manager here. She was totally bitchy and said that there wasn't anyone in the building by that name. Great.
By this point I was thinking, "Some asshole stole my phone!" I didn't know what to do and I couldn't even call my parents to tell them what was happening. That night FedEx wrote back to me and said that they don't mail to specific people, just to whatever address is on the air bill. They also said that often with apartment complexes they'll send it to the main office of the apartments then it's up to the office to distribute them to the tenant. The office that my package wound up at isn't affiliated with my complex whatsoever. Fucking FedEx. The next morning I was hell bent on finding the phone. Of course it was raining that morning (it hadn't rained in days) I found the apartments but there were about 5 buildings and I had no idea where the office would be. So I'm wandering around (with no glasses again because it's raining) all while being illegally parked because I thought I'd just be in and out. I asked some construction guys if they knew where the office was. Of course they didn't. I was about to give up when I saw a dude walking down the stairs. I asked him if he lived there and he said he did. I told him how my package wound up at this complex when I didn't even live there and he showed me to the office. That's one thing that I like about Seattle, a lot of people have been really courteous to me. When I went into the office there were two old dudes there and I explained about the package. They said they'd never gotten any mail from my building and how weird that was. Yeah, I know. It was bullshit.
So, in conclusion, my journey to Seattle had a very rocky start and there's been some bumps in the road since I got here. But everyone keeps telling me that it'll get better. And I'm assuming it will. Every day I'm getting a little more comfortable with the area and I haven't gotten myself too lost yet. The traffic here is bananas and I totally wasn't prepared for it. The streets here are super narrow and everyone parks on the street too which makes it tricky to get around without hitting someone. And then there's the inevitable loneliness that comes with moving to a new city. I haven't found a job yet so I'm home by myself a lot. I miss my family and my friends like crazy. I hope they don't forget about me...
Welp, that's my story about my journey to the Pacific Northwest. Let's just hope that it has a happy ending!
Laters!
P.S. Here's a pic of me in my new apartment and one of my new room:
