In the City....the City of Scranton

For starters, I am exhausted right now. Driving to and from Scranton in one day in the pouring rain will take a toll on anyone, but I think especially on a 17 week pregnant woman. My butt is so sore from sitting in the car, I'm pretty sure the baby can feel it.

I mentioned in an earlier post that this whole Leaving Long Island thing was only born a few weeks ago. It had been something Dustin and I always talked about and wished for, but we didn't really start looking outside of a ten mile radius on the island until things got so bad that desperation drove us to actually start considering it to be a possibility. Well now, it's an actuality.

This process has been a series of mile markers...big and not so big hurdles, if you will. Finding a decent paying job in a much smaller job market. Getting said job. Passing employment eligibility tests. Clearing up issues tying us to the island. (legal and otherwise.) Raising funds....and so on and so forth. We still have a few issues to figure out (health insurance, for example) but since we have a temporary COBRA situation, we only had one glaring thing left to address...finding a place to live.

I can't remember if I mentioned this before because I'm pretty much out of my mind with fatigue, but a few days (weeks? I don't know, it's a blur)ago we found an apartment a block from Dustin's new work place. We contacted the landlord right away, but we've learned that apartments (especially good ones) go VERY quickly in Scranton. It's a college town for sure. Professional apartments are really tough to find....meaning we didn't wanna live in a place that housed undergrads. We need quiet. So when we found this one and spoke to the landlord and realized he only rents to medical students (who tend to be older, working crazy hours at the nearby hospital and not into partying into the wee hours) we were very interested. We had originally had our hearts set on a cabin outside of Scranton, but it was just too risky and expensive. Gas prices in PA are comparable to LI. Any cabin we would get would be at least a half hour away (the areas JUST outside of Scranton are not so nice or safe.) So Dustin would have been commuting an hour a day, spending about 200 bucks in gas in the Jeep, which basically gets 2 miles a gallon. In a cabin, we'd be paying for EVERYTHING...water, oil, electric, sewage, trash removal and whatever extras we wanted (cable phone, etc.) The apartment includes everything except electric and cable, which will probably run us 100 bucks for both a month, which we factored in. Plus, with me being pregnant, we didn't like the idea of being a half hour apart...just in case. I also was a little scared to be in the wilderness by myself...I'm not gonna lie. I love the outdoors, but I'm not quite sure what I'd do if I saw a bear on my front steps. I'd probably either hide in the bathroom until Dustin got home or try to pet it. It would depend on the hormone situation that day.

We wanted to keep our options and minds open to all possibilities, however. So this morning, we left LI at about 11:30, briefly stopped at the mall to buy Dustin some nicer shoes (all of our clothing and shoes got trashed in the past couple of months somehow. Probably from all the moving) and headed to Scranton. Dustin had some paperwork he had to pick up from the new job and we were excited to see the apartment right away, so we headed there. We made great timing. Actually both on the way there and home it only took us three hours. Hardly any traffic.

We got to the Scranton area at about 3 and called the landlord, Charles. He was out and about but told us he'd be at the place by 330. As it turns out, the building in which the apartment is located has more offices inside than apartments. Charles is a realtor and his offices are on the ground floor. Behind his offices are two apartments. The second floor houses some lawyers offices and two apartments, one of which (2A) was the one we were looking at. Above us is another apartment and presumably more offices, but we didn't go up there.

As I mentioned previously, everyone we've encountered in PA has been extremely nice. Charles was no exception. A New Jersey native and self proclaimed "high end" realtor, he was well spoken and efficient. He took us up to the unit where it was revealed that it was the only one left and had just become available on the market. We were a little worried about having someone above us, but the way the building is structured, the floors are incredibly thick. There is a lot of excess room between apartments. I made sure to ask a million times how the noise was. Dustin and I resigned ourselves to having to deal with a bit of noise; we'd be living in a city after all. Charles claims he'd never had a problem with noise complaints and went on to describe all of the other tenants to us. All single working professionals. Considering some of the places I've lived on LI, this was definitely a much better demographic.

I think as Charles opened the door to the apartment, Dustin and I felt at home. It was smaller than we expected (the wide angle camera lens on the pictures we saw was quite crafty) but excess space wasn't something on our list of importance. Dustin and I have now lived in three different places together and we're the type of couple that prefers to be on top of each other (hey now!) What I mean is we tend to always be in the same location. We watch tv at the same time, go to bed at the same time, eat together...to be honest, now that I think about it, I can't remember the last time we were home together and not right next to each other. Even here in the spacious basement apartment, we don't use half. There's literally two more couches and a tv 10 feet from where we sit that we haven't used.

The Scranton apartment is a one bedroom. We were toying with the idea of a two bedroom because of the baby, but then as we talked, we realized we don't want the baby in a separate room from us for at least the first six months. I don't know if that's weird or if that will change with all the crying...but we feel very strongly that we want all three of us in the same room for a while. The bedroom is big enough for all our our furniture and the crib and changing table and some chairs for nursing, so I'm good with that. There is a living room/kitchen combo and a gorgeous stainless steel kitchen. The bathroom is big and brand new. We loved the shower/tub. Best of all, there is a washer and dryer in the unit. I've never had that before. I think I might be most excited over that. Throw some big closets, hardwood floors and central air into the mix and there you have it. Home sweet home. We loved it.

I forgot to mention that while we were waiting for Charles to show up at the apartment we decided to walk from the apartment to Dustin's job. It took us less than a minute. If Dustin ran it, he could make it in about 20 seconds.

After we checked out the place the time was 340. We wanted it. We also needed to get the first month rent and security to Charles and of course my checkbook was packed away in some unknown location. So we had decided earlier that if we wanted the place we'd just go to our bank (we did some research and found out that there was one a few blocks away) and get a bank check. We then discovered that the bank was about to close at 4pm. So we said...Charles...we love it, we'll take it, but we gotta run my pregnant ass over to the bank if you want your money. We had played around with the idea of staying at The Compound for the night and then getting the money to Charles tomorrow morning, but we have SOOOOO much to do tomorrow we just couldn't afford to miss half the day traveling. So we ran over to the bank, got the cashier's check just in the nick of time, ran back over to Charles and went over the lease. Charles also required a criminal background check and you'll all be glad to know that these future parents have no black marks on their record. We filled out the paperwork, signed the lease and were given keys. Charles walked us back upstairs, showed us the elevator (nice feature) and explained the locks. We all shook hands and Charles left us standing in our new home.

It was a scene from a movie each of us with keys in our hands and a big hug and kiss in an empty apartment. We spent a few minutes turning on and off water, flicking the lights, imagining where furniture would go and marveling at the beautiful fridge and stove and microwave. We imagined what we'd make for our first dinner in our home on Saturday night and how a Christmas tree would look in the living room. We pictured laying in our bed with a little baby between us. We delegated closets and opened and closed every door. We hugged and kissed again and breathed a sigh of relief and excitement and anxiousness. We exchanged "I love yous" and agreed that as long as we had each other, everything was gonna be fine.

We wished we had more time to absorb our new space, but Dustin still had paperwork waiting and we wanted to get going back to NY to spend our last two nights. We walked back up to his office, where I had found a sweet parking space. (oh..parking is a bitch. It looks like we're gonna have to buy a spot but get this...Dustin found out that we can buy a spot at the mall for 100 bucks a month. Sounds like a lot, but you get a 100 dollar gift card to the mall every month. It's like a Christmas gift savings program, right? I'm pushing for that option.) So Dustin went in and took care of his paperwork and I went to the Starbucks in the mall for some hot chocolate and free wifi.

When Dustin was all done, we decided to head back, even though we just wanted to go to The Compound and sleep. The icing on the cake for the day was that I took Dustin to the Cracker Barrel that's on the way back to New York. He had never been; I had one in my college town and it's my favorite. I had chicken and dumplings and he had a steak and the extra dumplings I ordered because they are the best.

We made it back in three hours and are now trying to unwind in order to get a good night sleep. Tomorrow we have to go get Dustin a copy of his birth certificate, (his was lost a long time ago) and run a bunch of other errands. We're gonna rent a truck tomorrow night as Dustin's brother is available to help us load it only then. We'll head up on Friday afternoon, meeting Dustin's mom and sister at the apartment in Scranton. I'm a little nervous about the drive because I'll be driving the truck and Dustin will be driving the Jeep...with the cats. I can't drive with the cats because it distresses me. They don't like the car and they cry and that makes me cry. Last time we only moved 20 minutes away and it was uber traumatic. This time we decided to make cat mansion in the Jeep. We're gonna lay the seats down, pad it with blankets, put their litter box back there and their food and hope that giving them a little room to roam and the ability to lick and sit next to each other will keep them calm. I am doubtful this is going to help, but I can't listen to them cry. It's scary to me to drive the truck all the way through the city, but I can do it. I've done the drive every time...both there and back today...and as long as we don't leave at a very busy time we'll be ok.

I'll post tomorrow night after we pack up but might not be able to post again until after the move is complete. We still have to hook up internet and cable, and I don't know about up there but down here that always takes forever.

Another hurdle jumped. So far, we keep landing on our feet. Thank you, universe. Thank you so much.