Our trek to start our new life in California took multiple days to unravel. It all started Wednesday night – we threw our own going away party at the bar at Cafe de Thai – chosen for their great mojitos. Just about everyone came, only one of my close friends was missing – Julie. Jay and Katie were there with little Isabel, who started crying when Katie told her we were moving. Katie promptly explained that they would visit and we could all go to the zoo. So Isabel was happy to see us and kept remarking “Elliott and Teresa we go to the zooooo”. Even Carie and Josh made it, I didn’t expect them to come, Carie is 8.9 months pregnant and going through her own battles of bed rest, preeclampsia… She was given a reprieve from the doctor for that day so they stopped by, we didn’t get to talk enough but it was the thought that counted (they did have their baby, a beautiful baby girl, Madelaine Suzanne… Maddie Sue). Stef and Don where there as well with not so new anymore little Katie, all she wanted to do was stand or walk. Elliott’s friends were all there, the boys were all gearing up for their Moab mountain biking trip that Elliott was originally planning to go on. Turns out Kevin fractured his arm on the trip, probably good Elliott didn’t go, I think broken bones are pretty common at Moab – Kevin said at the hospital they have a chart tracking injuries – ATV’s vs mountain bikes – I would have been very upset if Elliott came back with a cast that kept him from helping with all those damn boxes. Anyway back to the party, many people from work were there as well. John, one of our big clients, the one that has been asking Pete to open an office in the bay area, was in town and he came as well. He is a great man, I so enjoy working with him, it was nice that he came. Monica and I ordered dinner, Monica is the mom of the office, she stayed to the very end of the party which was so nice, its nice to have those kind of friends and that kind of support. Even the boss, Pete showed up at the end with Ray the chairman of our board (he is an outside director, not a BJG employee). Pete commented at the lack of attendance, all of our friends with their baby’s had gone home. Pete didn’t say much to me, at one point he did sayI think you’re ready – I agreed. Elliott, a couple of drinks more deep than I, enjoyed conversation with Pete and Ray talking about the possibilities in the bay. Pete on his way out said to me and anyone else listening, it’s all on your shoulders – no pressure. Oh Pete, the wise and motivating CEO, he must of thought about what his last words would be to his new team leader, his youngest Vice President, he never cease to amaze me. No pressure, thanks Pete. Later I was able to laugh about it, I think that is just his humor, but with Pete, you never know. That was our party. Afterwards Elliott, Jay and I went to grab dinner for Elliott and Jay who hadn’t bothered to stop drinking at the party to eat. It was nice that Jay stayed to the very end, we have often joked that Jay and Elliott are BFF’s (best friends forever), they have a great friendship and Jay proved why staying with us through the end of day.
Thursday was our last day at the office, it was time to wrap up any work that needed to be done and pack our boxes. We also had a company meeting, Elliott was asked to give the Pleasanton office update. Pete never said a word about it being our last day in Reno, neither did Elliott, not the send off I was looking for, I expected something, but that wasn’t Pete’s style – he’s not a cheerleader, he’s not a motivator, and he isn’t the type for big speeches, so that was that. Towards the end of the day we packed our boxes. It was interesting to see who stopped by and what they said. George, my old boss, came by and even gave me a hug. Monica snuck in and hid a huge bag of peanut M&M’s in one of my boxes. Dan came by gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek – Dan is the touchy feely one in the office, he is the cheerleader type, I know he genuinely would miss us, and genuinely wanted us to succeed… in everything. Pete never did come by, Elliott commented that he didn’t come by to see him either. I guess you can’t blame the guy he has enough going on his own life, a sick child preparing for a bone marrow transplant is probably a little distracting. I guess what you don’t get from others you find within yourself, so perhaps it makes you stronger. At the end of the day one thing was clear – we had way too many boxes and there was no way they were going to fit in our cars. We called Bradley, Elliott’s little brother (the middle brother), he came right to the office with his truck and was glad to help. The boys loaded the truck as I finished packing my office. We then paid Brad off with dinner at the Olive Garden, it was a nice going away dinner as he was going to miss the family going away dinner the next night. After we unpacked the boxes at the house, the 3 of us stood awkwardly in the driveway sharing our last words, after a day of goodbye hugs in the office (I am not a really touchy feely kind of person, I was warmed up) I initiated the hugs and gave Brad a hug which led to Elliott and Brad hugging which was nice, you could see on Brad’s face he was really sorry to see us go.
Friday was our day to pack our house. I woke up early crammed any last information I could fit in my brain about LEED and went to take the LEED exam for the second time. LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – green or sustainable design, the latest buzz in engineering and architecture. Elliott passed the exam the first time we took it, I had told Pete that we would both be accredited before we moved, I was determined to stick to my word. So on the day we were moving I took the test and passed – one less thing to worry about – one more piece of paper to move. Elliott was awake and packing boxes when I returned home – we were off to a good start. We went to pick up the truck. Looking at it we were both sure there was no way our house no matter how empty was going to fit in that 16′ truck but we chanced it anyway. Elliott drove the empty truck, trailer in tow and we met at home. We packed our house just the two of us. We realized later that no one had offered to help us move, I guess that’s what you get for moving the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. We put the couches in first, the large tables in next and then stacked boxes above. Elliott’s attention detail and my lack there of almost caused a few fights but I sucked it up and compromised, most of his retentiveness provided for some good details to protect our furniture. We packed and packed and packed and packed. Box after box, loading the hand truck, going up and down the ramp into the truck, it took maybe 5 hours in total to load the truck. We showered (Elliott didn’t want to but I told him his mom would appreciate it) and went to Elliott’s mom for a farewell dinner. She made one of the best meals I have ever had, simple and tasty, T bone steaks, broccoli and pasta salad, and for dessert her famous lemonade yogurt frozen thing over graham crackers. Connor enjoyed pieces of almost everything we had except the steak, Russell was there, only for a minute or two, he was getting ready to go to California to see an old girlfriend on the way to helping us unload the truck in California. We had a very nice dinner, we played for a little while with Connor, got to see one last bath time which is always precious and we had to go on our way, we were not quite done packing. Elliott’s mom didn’t cry but I think she was ready to any minute as we drove down the street. I wonder if she realizes how lucky she has been to have all of her children so close for so long, to have her oldest move away at 26 is really such a blessing, I am sure mom would have loved to have had me around for those extra years. But to have 5 of her children so close is a true blessing, I am sorry that I have to be the one distant child, and now Elliott and I will have to play that role together. Our last night in Reno we ran a few errands including going to the office, we delivered a gift for Monica, I let her borrow my rock tumbler we talked about it the previous night and she seemed like she had so enjoyed having one as a kid so I lent her mine. We packed more boxes, sorted things that we would donate that we didn’t need any more, loaded a few more boxes and eventually crashed.
Saturday morning our goal was to be on the road by 6:30am, we knew that was a joke but we repeated to many people to try and make it happen. We woke as early as we could, packed the mattress, dressed in the last set of clothes we had laid out for ourselves and set out to load the trailer on the truck and the car on the trailer. Even for two engineers that would be a feat considering neither of us were really from families that did much hauling, neither of had ever played with a hitch before, but how hard could it be? It took longer than expected, we tugged and we moved the truck inch by inch to line it up perfectly, we retraced our steps lowering the trailer and plugging all of the lights back in, still the brake lights on the right wouldn’t light up. Our game plan was I would drive directly behind the truck at all times so technically we weren’t really breaking any rules because my brake lights were working just fine, besides I could clearly see the lights on the truck around Elliott’s car so we were totally safe. 8:00 am we were packed, loaded and ready to go. We devised a plan to stop at the Starbucks down the street and planned where Elliott could park and have room for the truck and trailer, lattes in hand I watched Elliott driving circles through the large parking lot – he grinned when I reached the truck – he was practicing.
The drive was uneventful, the truck appeared to be rather bumpy, wobbly at times, I would call Elliott and say why don’t you slow down, you look like you were all over the place. He agreed and we hung up. I finished Thanksgiving and started The Cross, two audio books mom lent me. We didn’t stop for gas, food or bathroom, we were both too stressed about dealing with the truck and trailer, I could only watch Elliott run over so many curbs in one day. We made it to the office in Pleasanton, both ready to pee our pants. We unloaded the work boxes so that we wouldn’t have to unload them at home and them move them again to work. The office was empty except for the mound of boxes our IT guy had left. We would have to wait to pull the office together, we stacked up our boxes, mentally let go of the office and its needs for time being and went on our way. We called in the reinforcements who had offered to help, Matt and Ashley our friends who had moved to this area 9 months ago, and Russell the youngest of Elliott’s brothers. We drove the truck to the apartment and met Russell for lunch we had Armadillo Willy’s a delicious bbq place that is the same parking lot as our apartment. Russell was smiling from ear to ear he thought this place was great, looked like a great place to live to him, Elliott and I weren’t quite ready for thinking that yet. After lunch we retrieved our key and began to move. We had initially thought that the parking garage would prove to be a savior for moving, turns out our moving truck was too tall to make it up to our floor, the 4th. So we parked the moving truck in the courtyard and moved things into the vehicles and drove the vehicles up, some of the things we took up the elevator, not terribly efficient but better than moving it up by had up the stairs. Eventually Ashley and I excused ourselves from lugging around boxes and furniture and began un-packing – hey someboby had to it. We soon found that storage space was limited in the 700 sf new home of ours (yes 700 sf, quite a change from 1340 sf + garage we had spent the last 2 years in). Our silverware tray was too wide for the drawer for instance. I however am fortunate: 1) I got my spacial sense from mom, 2) I am an efficiency expert. I was quickly able to size up our goods and the storage available and sort and store everything. At one point the boys brought in a bookshelf and said where do you want it, I said next to the sliding glass door on that sliver of wall, Ashley immediate replied it won’t fit there, I think the boys agreed and they carried it over there just to spite me and then it slide in perfectly like it was made for it, just brushing the vertical blinds, I grinned, I am good!
Moving in went well – it must have taken1/2 the time of moving out, the help was nice. After moving in, we went to dinner with Matt and Ashley, Russell had left as soon as were done he was anxious to return to Reno, I was unable to get him and Elliott to hug, but I got my hug in so I felt good. We had dinner at Chevy’s, enjoyed a margarita and tried to comprehend that this foreign place was our new home.
Its been a few days now, we worked this past week, did lots of shopping, grocery, furniture, office and otherwise. We have unpacked every box and just tonight we put away the last large storage bin of pictures and memories, our living room is finally box free. We saw one movie, Spider Man, we have eaten out a little bit, on Thai place, Togo’s, and even tried a place this morning to replace Walden’s but I don’t think it is up for the challenge. We went for a run and kicked the soccer ball around at the park across the street and have generally tried to fit in and make this strange place feel like home. I guess it’s getting better, I think it took a year for our house in Sparks to ever feel like ours, I hope it doesn’t take that long here, at some point your house is your identity, it is the warmth in your life and this place that has all of our stuff in it still feels a little cold. Elliott wants to get some wall hangings, we saw a really appealing one at Pier One that might do the trick. I think that will make this place feel a little less temporary. Because for now, it looks like we might be here awhile.
