So… I moved to New Orleans from Virginia. Now that the tears have dried on my cheeks, I can sit down and put my thoughts together.

Let me start off by saying my father is the greatest man on the planet. (great, I’m already crying again) He has moved me into and out of countless apartments all over Virginia and never complained about it once. This move was probably the hardest one on both of us because it is for an unknown amount of time, unlike College, or Richmond, in a place that takes 14 hours to drive to. Sure, we can hop on a plane and be there same day, but so can Californians, but that takes preplanning.

We took two days to drive down. Thank goodness 81 was moving quickly, but I will say that getting to Bristol felt like it took FOR-EV-ER.

We stayed the night outside of Chattanooga, TN and then picked up bright and early Sunday to finish the drive. We never actually saw the “Welcome to Louisiana” state sign, just all of a sudden, here we were. 

So here’s my super cute, bare bones, apartment. Its a one bed, one bath, washer & dryer IN UNIT (the essential piece), space! Its in New Orleans, literally, my address says New Orleans… which is kind of fun 🙂 Its on the second floor and the building has 12 foot ceilings. I never really thought about ceilings until I looked at serious apartments. It doesn’t feel like someone is right on top of you which is nice. The downside to that?…. decorating. And not like a “hey I’m in college, lets throw up posters” kind of decorating, but like… real adult decorating. My mother & sister will confirm this…. I was never really the helpful one when Christmas decorations came out.

So we started the daunting task of unloading…. first, my car. Which got an incredible 41 mpg highway on the first day. I packed my car with my closet and whatever knick-knacks I could shove in the trunk.

Thank goodness for Pinterest, I saw a bunch of pins on packing and moving, since I hate packing… its the absolute worst, I was trying to find any hints or tricks to make it easier. I’d really like a button that shrinks everything to suitcase size that you can just load into a truck… Can somebody please invent that? thanks. Anyway, a bunch of people said to separate clothes in your closet into clumps & put garbage bags around them. Now, they used the white kitchen bags, I went with big black trash bags. I put my own little twist on it too and used belts through the hangers to make transporting to the car easier.

After that, we took on the van…. it had quite a few more things in it…. but Dad is a Tetris whiz, so everything fit perfectly and not one thing fell or rattled the whole 2 day trip! But oh my goodness, now where to I start.

We made made a late night trip to the Wal*Mart across the street for a few essential things…. you know, shower curtain, dish soap, etc. and what a culture shock it was walking into that place. There is a fully stocked liquor store pretty much right next to the registers. Welcome to New Orleans!

There are some amenities right around my apartment, there’s a Pizza Hut and Chinese food restaurant, as well as a nail salon and gym right under the complex. LOVE that! Its also a nice neighborhood atmosphere so I can get back to my Disney half-marathon training.

The next day the cable guy came and hooked up everything – cable, internet, & home phone, while Dad drove across the river to pick up my desk and couch. Look how pretty it is!

We then took a break to go pick up my company car. YES. COMPANY CAR. hallelujah! That was another selling point of this apartment complex – no extra charge to park vehicles. And we’ve noticed that I am not fighting for spaces in the lot either. Which is nice.

And then came the million step process of putting together the desk. Dad wins again!

Another Wal*Mart run at 9pm stocked us up on the additional things on the list, which seems to be growing every time I look around. Add: desk chair.

Dishes, Pots & Pans, desk organizers, OH MY! Did I mention there is a McDonalds in the Wal*Mart? yup. I need to get some kind of storage ottoman or table… add it to the list.

We finally got to a decent place last night around 11:30pm. We pulled out the couch, put the new sheets on and Dad had a real bed to sleep on instead of an air mattress! There’s still a lot of work to do for me, attempting to make all my work stuff make sense, decorating, putting the last few items away…. But its a good start.