So what happened? Oh, yeah… August 9th was an extremely long day for me. Got up around 7 to get ready so that by 8am we were ready to go pick up the UHAUL. Found out at the last minute that in addition to Mike and Kyle, my friend Chris was also going to be riding along with us (which I thought was pretty big, since he’s a self-proclaimed hater of cities). With the knowledge of an extra pair of hands, I jumped in the UHAUL and made the scariest trip of my life—all three miles of it—to my grams.
After gram’s (I was stealing her couch, kitchen table, and a few odds and ends since she’s moving in with my mother soon) it was back to my house where we proceeded to pretty much fill both the UHAUL and my car to capacity. Then the fun happened: 5 hour road trip in a vehicle that was honestly TOO big for me. It was quite a harrowing experience… But we made it in one piece despite the fact that at one point I was pretty sure my mother was going to pull my car over in panic from all the traffic.
Now I had been told that Pittsburgh very rarely has really nice days… Whoever told me that is a liar. I’ve been here for over three weeks and it’s rained twice…both times at night when it was already cooling down. So needless to say, unloading all my shit was absolute hell because of the heat and the fact that my in-apartment air conditioner was basically on its last legs and therefore not even worth turning on. We ended up going out to dinner just to be someplace cool.
After dinner, Kyle directed us to the Mt. Washington lookout which was basically amazing. I’ve been back there at least 5 times since I moved down. At night the skyline is so beautiful… it’ll never get old.
After a long and extremely hot night, the boys helped me get some furniture from IKEA and set it up. Then they headed home and it was just my mom and I. We spent the next two days cleaning every surface of the apartment and unpacking the rest of my stuff. I wasn’t sure we’d ever get done, and by the time I was supposed to take her back to my aunt’s house we still hadn’t gotten everything. But it was another 5 hour road trip for me… Out to Huntingdon and back.
And that’s when all the firsts started.
First Night Alone—I will admit that I slept with my bedroom door closed AND locked. And I kept my trusty pepper spray on the nightstand. Eventually I progressed from that to pepper spray in the night stand to door closed but not locked to door open. Some nights are better than others and sometimes I end up getting up and closing the door, but eventually I’ll be used to it here.
First Breakdown—It took a couple days after my mom left before the fact that I was all alone out here really set in. Didn’t end pretty.. All the unpacking and virtually getting nowhere had taken its toll and somehow I ended up a panicked mess huddling in my bathroom of all places (I suppose since it was the only room in the house completely clean and put together).
I do love my bathroom though =)
First Meal—I didn’t honestly make anything to eat that didn’t come out of a box or can for two weeks. It was a lot of cereal, Velveeta cheese and shells cups and soup (since I was also sick at the time). However, the first thing I ate that was not junk food inside my house was heated up alfredo from The Cheesecake Factory.
This stuff, Chicken Alfredo with Sun-dried Tomatoes, is the best thing I’ve ever had at Cheesecake Factory (besides the cheesecake of course).
First Construction Run-In—It seems like the construction here in Pitt is out to get me. Each and every time I figure out a good, reliable way to get somewhere, within the next two days there’s usually construction there. It either makes traffic worse or the road is closed all together. I’ve had to discover 5 new routes to my school to avoid construction, heavy traffic, and Pirates games. I dread to see what it’s going to be like over here on the Steelers’ game nights.
First Day From Hell (aka PNC Bank Lies)—I had to open up a new checking account for down here since my bank isn’t in Pitt. Well, I went to the branch in my school to open it because that’s what the website suggested. This was on a Friday and I was told that unfortunately that branch couldn’t accept deposits. So I needed to find a branch open on Saturday where I could deposit money so that when my $5 check-printing fee went through I wouldn’t get charged for over-drafting my account. I spent half the night searching PNC’s website for branches that were open on Saturday. Got one and plugged it into my GPS only to get there and find a bright, shiny, new CVS and no bank. I had to call Mike and have him look up other locations for me. He got me two more open on Saturday and off I went. First location was a bust: no bank, again. Second location was all the way across town. During the lovely little trip I managed to almost run over an otter that decided to stop running right in front of my car. I was almost hit by a passing fire-truck even though I was very completely pulled off the road. And then when I finally found the next bank and got a parking space, a disgruntled pigeon decided it would be a good idea to attack my feet. But I did manage to make my deposit…then promptly went home and hid in my house for the rest of the day.
Despite a few setbacks that first week, I think I did okay adjusting to being alone and in a completely unfamiliar city. It’s still an adjustment at times…it seems like I learn something new about Pitt every day. But on the whole I love it here so far!
