I’m all settled in!  It was a jam-packed day of driving around, moving furniture, and otherwise getting comfy in my new abode.

I picked up Panda around 8:30 and got back home within an hour.  My dad then came along with us to get the rental truck, which took something like 40 minutes!  There were only two people in front of us in line, but the one guy working took his time and made quite a few mistakes too.  Except for standing the in cold for so long and getting a rather curt, “What do you want?” greeting, we had a pretty smooth transaction.  The guy even had his dog Harley and some treats for the boy, so I fed him one when he came around to sniff me.  My dad drove the truck back to our house since he’d driven moving trucks before, for the many moves we’d done during my childhood.

At home, Mom was already moving things out to the curb for easy loading to the truck.  Between the four of us, we got everything packed up within half an hour and were on our way down to my new apartment.  As we left our valley, it began to drizzle and the whole way down was wet.  We had to move everything in the rain, but at least it wasn’t coming down too hard.  My shoes and pant legs did get very wet though.  This time we managed to get everything up to the apartment in about 45 minutes and I was surprised that even the large items could fit in the elevator.  I hadn’t imagined it to be so big.  My dad and I went to drop off the truck before the rental place closed and we were charged $10 for dropping it off after-hours.  Meanwhile, Panda, my mom, and my new roomie stayed to set things up in the apartment.

When my dad and I got back, it was time for my parents to trek out to Hollywood to do some duty-free shopping for some relatives.  Panda and I then went out to Costco, Staples, and Bed, Bath & Beyond to look for a desk for my room and a shower curtain for the bathroom.  I ended up buying a bunch of food to stock up on.  🙂