In the South

Driving down from Indiana to S. Carolina on Thursday started off pretty crazy. We left mom's house at 7 a.m. and spent the next three to four hours trying to get out of Ohio. At least, Ryan spent the next hours that way...I was asleep once we crossed into Ohio and woke up to find ourselves...still in Ohio.

I'm thankful for 4-wheel drive, but that didn't keep us from sliding across three lanes of mid-Ohio traffic at one point, Ryan literally calling out (I'd say screaming, but he doesn't really scream) to God, "Please protect us! Please protect us!" Somehow there were no cars in the neighboring lanes and the ones behind us were already slowing down for the slower traffic up ahead (which was the cause of our sliding in the first place...apparently ice doesn't like it when you try to use brakes on it).

I like that Ryan's first response was to pray instead of mine, which would have been unleashing streams of "shit shit shit shit." Although, I'm guessing God knows that's my way of praying, basically saying, "Ok, this is bad. Really bad. Maybe stop this from being bad?" Because if I'd had time to think, I'd have prayed, too. Well, or maybe I'd just have said, "Shit."

All that to say, by noon we were safely into Kentucky where the snow released its death grip and instead gave us rain, rain rain. The rain followed us through Kentucky into Tennessee where we stopped for dinner at a low-bar diner where, for some reason, I decided we should eat because what else says "we're embarking on a great adventure" than a side-of-the-road diner where the waitress has a sweet southern accent?

By this point, it was 5 p.m. and we knew we'd missed our chance to get into our apartment that night, as the office closed at 6 p.m. and we were a good two hours away. So we drove the rest of the way to Greenville and checked into an Econolodge. All of yesterday we spent signing our lease, marking off items from a checklist as the angelic (actually, they're more like machines and I have no idea how they do such hard labor for hours and hours) movers heaved our stuff up to our apartment, and slowly unpacking as we maneuver through boxes.

Unpacking our stuff is like Christmas times a thousand, as I open something and go, "Ooooh, something else I like!" It's easy to forget that we've had it all along since we haven't seen it for two weeks. The only casualty was some broken glass on my doll case, but we'll get that fixed, along with a few minor nicks on our furniture. I'm honestly amazed how smooth the moving has gone overall.

It's now early Saturday morning and I'm ready for another day of unpacking (and grocery shopping at Trader Joe's! Yes, you can be jealous) since I fell asleep at nine o'clock last night and didn't get up until two hours ago. AND Ryan and I took a sweet three-hour nap yesterday. So I'm pretty freaking rested, if not feeling displaced. But this displaced feeling is actually pretty nice. My improv class starts Monday night and I'm emailing around about teaching. I doubt I'll have classes this spring, but I'll live. Maybe I'll actually write more, who knows? Maybe I'll further our campaign to get our friends and family to move down with us?

So, we're here and we're safe. I'm happy for that.