At the end of this month, Keith, Gwen, Simba and I will be moving to Pittsburgh so Keith can continue his residency in anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. I started packing today. Thankfully, when we staged the house to sell it, we packed up about half of our possessions (which are currently split between a storage unit and Keith's parents' house), so I technically started packing last summer (after we found out that Keith had matched at UPMC for his 2nd-4th years of residency). But that's just splitting hairs. Today I started the post-sale packing. This morning I packed the first three boxes since we got a contract on our house.
Packing and moving is a little bit daunting and a little bittersweet. This is the longest that I have lived anywhere since before I left for college in 2003. This is the first home that Keith and I shared. This is the house that we brought Gwen home from the hospital to. This is the house that someone tried to break into while I was home alone...wait for it...which led to us getting Simba. (Okay, so not everything about this house has been great, but overall, I've been pretty happy.)
Even more daunting, however, than packing are all of the unknowns. I can handle packing. I know that I have a set number of boxes and a set number of belongings. I have to put said belongings into said boxes, tape them shut, and label them with a Sharpie marker. Piece. Of. Cake. What kind of scares me is starting over.
This morning when I was heating up my oatmeal, I watched it through the glass as it nearly bubbled over. For anyone who doesn't eat oatmeal, or chooses to make it on the stovetop instead of the microwave, if you heat it to long, it bubbles over the edge of the bowl and makes a huge mess. For quite some time, I would stand next to the microwave and stare through the window with my finger poised over the stop button in order to make sure that I caught it as it started bubbling (indicating doneness) without it bubbling over. If I used milk instead of water, different amounts of oats, or warm vs. cold liquids to make my oatmeal, it would cause it to bubble over at different cooking times. However, after dozens of bowls of oatmeal, I figured out that if I use 2/3 cup of oats, refrigerator temperature milk, and set the microwave for 2 minutes, I get a perfect bowl of oatmeal. I don't even have to watch it anymore. I can walk away and go about my day for those 2 minutes. This morning, however, I stood by the microwave contemplating our impending move. It occurred to me that I don't know how our new microwave is going to cook! What if it is a different wattage? What if it takes me several more months to figure out the magic formula of liquids, oats, and time?!?!?! What if the popcorn button on our new microwave cooks the popcorn too long and causes it to catch on fire, unlike our current microwave that cooks popcorn with no burning and minimal kernel waste?!?!?!?!?!?! I realize this may seem like small beans, but it is just one of many concerns about moving to a new city.
A second concern is finding good radio stations. You may ask, "Why don't you just scan the stations until you find a song that you like, and stay on that station if it continues playing songs that you like?" While this may sound like common sense, I remember that when I moved to Columbus, it took me a couple of months to figure out which radio stations I liked. It wasn't until just this year, 5 years after moving to Columbus, that I finally settled on which stations to program into my car radio. I know that it will just take time, but it is another layer of unfamiliarity.
It worries me that in order to run any errand, I will have to run a google search and them program addresses into my GPS. Furthermore, my GPS is horribly out of date, and, given the often changing street patterns in Pittsburgh, it will likely lead me down the wrong roads. You might wonder why I don't just use my smart phone. Well, I only own a dumb phone. It only has the capabilities of making phone calls and sending text messages. When I say text messages, I literally mean text messages. I cannot send or receive photos or videos. I can only send and receive text. With my phone's ancient technology, I certainly can't give it a voice command and expect it to find me the nearest Starbucks.
Finally, a much bigger concern is finding a new church. The only people we know in Pittsburgh are Catholic. With all due respect to the Catholic church, we are not Catholic. We are protestants, and we really aren't all that picky about denominations. Growing up, I went to Baptist, Methodist, and Assembly of God churches, finally landing at a Wesleyan University. Keith grew up in a Presbyterian church. We currently go to a Baptist church. If we at least had it narrowed down to a denomination, the search would be much easier. We could just google "Baptist Church Pittsburgh" and choose from a list of search results. Unfortunately, what we are looking for you can't just type into Google. We want a church home in which the people are a family. We want to be involved in the church ministries and want to be a part of a church body in which the other members want to be involved. We want a doctrinally sound church with a pastor who is a good teacher, good leader, and good steward. Thankfully, we found that at Mountview Baptist Church. I am just worried that we are going to have trouble finding it again. Honestly, when Keith was ranking programs to match into, one of the big considerations that we had was leaving our current church. We finally decided to rank Pittsburgh first, and our current home, Columbus, second. But it was a difficult choice knowing that if he matched at Pittsburgh we would be leaving our church home.
The biggest concerns are not packing up. They are starting over.
Packing and moving is a little bit daunting and a little bittersweet. This is the longest that I have lived anywhere since before I left for college in 2003. This is the first home that Keith and I shared. This is the house that we brought Gwen home from the hospital to. This is the house that someone tried to break into while I was home alone...wait for it...which led to us getting Simba. (Okay, so not everything about this house has been great, but overall, I've been pretty happy.)
Even more daunting, however, than packing are all of the unknowns. I can handle packing. I know that I have a set number of boxes and a set number of belongings. I have to put said belongings into said boxes, tape them shut, and label them with a Sharpie marker. Piece. Of. Cake. What kind of scares me is starting over.
This morning when I was heating up my oatmeal, I watched it through the glass as it nearly bubbled over. For anyone who doesn't eat oatmeal, or chooses to make it on the stovetop instead of the microwave, if you heat it to long, it bubbles over the edge of the bowl and makes a huge mess. For quite some time, I would stand next to the microwave and stare through the window with my finger poised over the stop button in order to make sure that I caught it as it started bubbling (indicating doneness) without it bubbling over. If I used milk instead of water, different amounts of oats, or warm vs. cold liquids to make my oatmeal, it would cause it to bubble over at different cooking times. However, after dozens of bowls of oatmeal, I figured out that if I use 2/3 cup of oats, refrigerator temperature milk, and set the microwave for 2 minutes, I get a perfect bowl of oatmeal. I don't even have to watch it anymore. I can walk away and go about my day for those 2 minutes. This morning, however, I stood by the microwave contemplating our impending move. It occurred to me that I don't know how our new microwave is going to cook! What if it is a different wattage? What if it takes me several more months to figure out the magic formula of liquids, oats, and time?!?!?! What if the popcorn button on our new microwave cooks the popcorn too long and causes it to catch on fire, unlike our current microwave that cooks popcorn with no burning and minimal kernel waste?!?!?!?!?!?! I realize this may seem like small beans, but it is just one of many concerns about moving to a new city.
A second concern is finding good radio stations. You may ask, "Why don't you just scan the stations until you find a song that you like, and stay on that station if it continues playing songs that you like?" While this may sound like common sense, I remember that when I moved to Columbus, it took me a couple of months to figure out which radio stations I liked. It wasn't until just this year, 5 years after moving to Columbus, that I finally settled on which stations to program into my car radio. I know that it will just take time, but it is another layer of unfamiliarity.
It worries me that in order to run any errand, I will have to run a google search and them program addresses into my GPS. Furthermore, my GPS is horribly out of date, and, given the often changing street patterns in Pittsburgh, it will likely lead me down the wrong roads. You might wonder why I don't just use my smart phone. Well, I only own a dumb phone. It only has the capabilities of making phone calls and sending text messages. When I say text messages, I literally mean text messages. I cannot send or receive photos or videos. I can only send and receive text. With my phone's ancient technology, I certainly can't give it a voice command and expect it to find me the nearest Starbucks.
Finally, a much bigger concern is finding a new church. The only people we know in Pittsburgh are Catholic. With all due respect to the Catholic church, we are not Catholic. We are protestants, and we really aren't all that picky about denominations. Growing up, I went to Baptist, Methodist, and Assembly of God churches, finally landing at a Wesleyan University. Keith grew up in a Presbyterian church. We currently go to a Baptist church. If we at least had it narrowed down to a denomination, the search would be much easier. We could just google "Baptist Church Pittsburgh" and choose from a list of search results. Unfortunately, what we are looking for you can't just type into Google. We want a church home in which the people are a family. We want to be involved in the church ministries and want to be a part of a church body in which the other members want to be involved. We want a doctrinally sound church with a pastor who is a good teacher, good leader, and good steward. Thankfully, we found that at Mountview Baptist Church. I am just worried that we are going to have trouble finding it again. Honestly, when Keith was ranking programs to match into, one of the big considerations that we had was leaving our current church. We finally decided to rank Pittsburgh first, and our current home, Columbus, second. But it was a difficult choice knowing that if he matched at Pittsburgh we would be leaving our church home.
The biggest concerns are not packing up. They are starting over.
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