The 30 Hour Drive

"There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: a right time for birth and another for death, a right time to plant and another to reap, a right time to kill and another to heal, a right time to destroy and another to construct, a right time to cry and another to laugh, a right time to lament and another to cheer, a right time to make love and another to abstain, a right time to embrace and another to part, a right time to search and another to count your losses, a right time to hold on and another to let go, a right time to rip out and another to mend, a right time to shut up and another to speak up, a right time to love and another to hate, a right time to wage war and another to make peace." - Ecclesiastes 3

30 hours later and WE MADE IT!! The drive started Thursday morning at 3:30 am and we didn't stop until 11pm. By then we had crossed Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio. No problems with my car either!! (Jennifer and I were starting to question my cars abilities because right before we left Lubbock, my car stopped 2 times one day, 2 times the next, and 4 times the day we were leaving) Cincinnati was by far the prettiest city .. after Cincinnati we kind of got lost .. map quest was taking us back the opposite direction .. and we didnt figure out we were going the wrong way until we had travel about 120 miles at 55 mph. Needless to say we were extremely tired after that and decided to drive to Columbus and call it a night. It was about 12am by the time we were in bed. Then we woke up again at 3am to be back on the road by 3:30 .. we drove AND drove AND drove .. this part of the trip seemed like the longest!! We stopped in Pennsylvania and I saw a TEXAS ROADHOUSE .. so I figured that maybe my new food obsession would also be in New York. The road to New York was the longest we had to go without any turns .. like 5 hours!! YUCK!! By this time I had heard every song on the radio like a gazillion times, my legs hurt, and I was bored out of my mind. Sitting in a car for that long without any stops but for like gas was kind of like torture!! (I would NEVER do this drive again in two days .. maybe if we could split it up over the course of a week, but even that is pushing it). Time kept ticking and the road kept going, we drove through the New York toll, where you have to pay to get off and back on) and drove out of the toll ($15 later) to finally be 9 exits away from East Greenbush. We pulled into the apartment parking lot at 2 pm .. and it looked a lot DIFFERENT than my previous apartment, but Lubbock, Texas and East Greenbush, New York are two totally different places. The apartment complex has a lot of trees and kind of reminds me of a camp type setting. I was very nervous as to what to expect seeing that we had not been able to come look at apartments before we moved me in. It turned out to be a good deal. Its a pretty nice place. We moved in all of my stuff up a flight of stairs and then went on a search for the mattress that I had found on craigslist. Well .. I call the guy who has a mattress warehouse and he tells us to meet him their in about an hour and we go and look at the mattresses and he wants to sell us crap for more than crap is worth, so I tell him thanks for wasting our time and for misadvertising your mattresses, but I will not be purchasing your expensive crap. We then got to a furniture store that someone had reccommended and got a pretty good deal on a mattress, desk, and dresser. The desk took about 7 hours to put together .. gag!! After we had all that done we set about too go to walmart, bed bath and beyond, and just fill the apartment with all the necessities. FINALLY .. Sunday afternoon the apartment was finished. Monday we were able to go to the school (only a 7 minute drive), talk to them, go to the mall and find all the necessary places. SO NOW .. here I am sitting in my NY apartment watching tv, blogging and thinking about what I have gotten myself into. A few funny things that I have come across while here are that the pool closes September 1st, they call sacks bags, and the man laughed at me when I bought a fan from walmart. I guess I have put myself in this position for a reason .. if you are always comfortable with what you do then you will never grow and change. I don't know what possessed me to come clear across the country to go to school, but I know that God has a reason and a plan. (Jeremiah 29:11) This may be the hardest year of my life, or it could quite easily be the most fun .. but I am looking forward to the experience and what may come about this drastic change that I have made. I know that with time I will be more comfortable and may be a lot colder than I usually am .. but everything always works out for the best. By the way for all of you who know I have a sick obsession with zebra print .. I was able to continue that obsession and purchases some very sweet pink sheets and a brown zebra comforter. Well .. I need to go and make dinner and finish reading .. but keep in touch and I'll be back!!

Remember .. the better way to treat life is to treat it as a journey. It should not be a matter of who finishes the race first. It should not even be a matter whether the person finishes the race or not. It does not matter much who is good, better or best particularly if the person makes other people lose just to win. Treating life as journey should mean making a good difference in the lives of other people along the way towards the finish line.