almost settled in, but not quite.
Unfortunately, our Door to Door crate is not arriving till Friday, so we're still making do with very little. Fortunately, this gives us plenty of space to put together new furniture and arrange things.
At this point, we're almost as at home at Ikea and Bed Bath & Beyond as at our actual apartment! Today, the last piece of furniture will arrive (a sofa and nighttable), and we won't have to haunt those places anymore.
What really makes me feel like we've moved in is that we've had our first overnight visitor, and gone out to our first social function. One of my best college friends stayed the weekend, and last night we went to a bbq. We even contributed a salad and some corn. However, the way we brought the salad sort of exemplifies our current state of being....
All of our kitchen stuff is in the crate, except for the new set of pots and pans Robin bought (courtesy of my mother's graduation check to him) when we got here.
We're together enough to make tasty salad, but not together enough to bring it in a proper container!
Today, I'm heading into school to check in with Maureen, the program administrator for the Immunology department, to get started on the next part of my transition; school!
The Roadtrip
We left Boston the morning of the 14th, arriving in Toledo OH after sunset. The 15th, we drove from Toledo to Sioux Falls, SD. The 16th, we drove from Sioux Falls to Sheridon , WY. The 17th, we drove through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons to Jackson, WY. The 18th, we drove from Jackson to Sparks, NV. And today, we finally arrived in Palo Alto.
This was the first cross country drive for all of us. I did some of the driving, but most of the time, Robin was behind the wheel, while I navigated, and Wirt lay between us.
Wirt spent the majority of the trip asleep in various amusing positions. He didn't have much space back there as we had crammed 4 computers, a litterbox, a suitcase, and our various personal items back there with him... but he certainly made the most of it. Thankfully, he didn't spend much time below the driver's feet, except when he was hot and wanting to avoid the sunlight.
The cat wasn't the only source of amusement. The drive was surprisingly scenic. We drove through the Badlands, Yellowstone, and the Tetons, all of which were beautiful.
Unfortunately, with Wirt in tow, we couldn't spend much time exploring any of the national parks. Neither Robin nor I are fans of "drive by tourism" when it comes to the great outdoors, so hopefully we can return someday, with camping gear.
Now that this adventure is over, our next challenge is moving into our new apartment. The majority of our stuff is in a Door-to-Door crate, being driven cross country. We also need to acquire a lot of furniture, since the only stuff we brought are a dresser and a shelf.
And so it starts.
I've known since early spring that I would be attending Stanford in the fall. But until this week, it hasn't registered that I really am going.
My last day at the Hacohen Lab was last Friday. My husband, Robin, and I have spent the last 4 days packing up our home in Cambridge, MA. Tonight, we had our friends over for the our last weekly dinner get together in the Boston area. Saturday, Door-to-Door will drop off the trailer for us to fill, and we'll sell off the last of our furniture. Monday, we set off in our new car, to drive from here to Palo Alto, with our cat, Wirt, in the backseat.
The lease for our new apartment is signed, our bank accounts have been moved, the new car purchased, our lives packed up and ready to go. Now, we just have to do it.
About Me
the basic facts:
I am:
- a 26 year old American born Chinese woman
- a born and bred Jersey girl
- a wife of 3 years
- an engineer (I received my bachelor's in Engineering & Applied Sciences from Caltech, my master's in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, have worked on the 2003 Mars Rover and Payload System's Cell Culture Unit that was to go on the International Space Station)
- a biologist in training (I am entering Stanford to work on a ph.d. in Immunology, and am interested in applying systems biology to autoimmunity)
- an amateur photographer
- an avid gamer (both board and video games)
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