Ready, Set, Clean!...then unpack, shop, and maybe some art stuff if I have time.

And so it starts!

Mom and I set out at the crack of dawn on the 3rd armed with a U-Haul, two vehicles full of boxes, and some travel CDs I burned the night before. Yes, I know, no one burns CDs anymore. Remember, you're also talking to the girl who didn't own a phone that could connect to the internet until November of last year. Anyway.

After 13 hours of straight driving we arrived to find that the apartment was...mostly ready for me to move into. They had just replaced the carpet in the living room but some repairs and cleaning still needed doing. I'll take mostly ready over "you're going to need to find a motel for the night" though! We rolled out the sleeping pads and crashed.

After admiring the scenery (all of my windows offer sunrise and sunset mountain views, woo!) we got to work helping the cleaning lady finish sprucing up the place. Mostly the kitchen and shampooing the carpet in the bedroom.

Bet you thought my first adventure in Colorado would be hiking! Hah! Shows what we know. Also, it would appear my apartment still has some of its original fixtures from the 60's. I think it's kind of neat:

Throughout the day we started trickling in with boxes, squeezing what we could into a shopping cart that we rode up and down the elevator with. I will spare you boring details, just know that it took all day despite most of what I have being collapsible and lightweight. A big thanks to my friends John and Alayna for coming over from Denver to help me out with the larger, awkward stuff. And for the awesome house warming plant! I'm going to name it Billy. At least until I can think of a better name.

I must say though, this sweet art desk is my favorite piece of brand new furniture:

Why yes, those are milk crates and a giant plank of wood. I know, I know, it's genius. Don't be jealous.

Finally, last night I had a chance to show Mom around Golden a bit. We didn't make it up the mountain this time, but we did enjoy the lovely riverwalk, the geology museum, and the downtown shopping strip. It really is a cool little town.

Mom left this morning and I hope she doesn't fall asleep driving; we stayed up kind of late putting things away and getting rid of boxes. As you can see from the above picture, I've still got a bit of that to do today before I leave for Kansas tomorrow morning, So I'll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite books, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. If you haven't read this book yet, you really need to. It reads as both an adventure story and wisdom from your grandfather at the same time. I find this particular snippet resounds with me right now. :)

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream." 

Til next time!
~K