The Move

I am going to attempt to catch up on the blog (even though I should be preparing for my classes). I was going to do a detailed account of the road trip from Austin to New Paltz, but it turns out that it was very uneventful. The most interesting part was dealing with my cat, who historically has hated all forms of travel. The first day we just drove for a few hours, since we left after the movers finished loading my stuff. (We = me and my mom.) My cat was pretty much in torture that whole time. For some reason he drools like mad when we travel - he used to do it when I took him on airplanes before I gave up on it. So I basically had drool all over myself and the car. And if I tried to wipe it off he would shake his head away, thus spraying the drool like a big dog. At one point he actually threw up, which was delightful.

Drooly cat

Finally after several hours he discovered that sleeping on the dashboard works ok, and he managed to relax for an hour or so. We stopped in Greenville, TX, just on the other side of Dallas. It turns out that my cat loves hotel rooms, and had a great time exploring and looking around. He sat in the window watching people come in and out of the hotel. Unfortunately we couldn't get him to eat or drink anything. The most exciting part of the Greenville, TX stop is that I submitted my dissertation online from the hotel room the next morning. It was very strange to have such a big moment occur in such a random place. Anyway, back on the road for the next day, which lasted all the way to Nashville, TN. The cat was a drool machine once again, but no barf, and he managed to stop drooling after a few hours. He found a new favorite spot lying next to my feet and stayed there comatose for much of the day.

Comatose kitty

We actually got really worried that he was sick because he hadn't had any food or water, and surely he had drooled out all of his liquids. That night in the hotel room I finally got him to drink by running the faucet for him - he was so excited and drank so much that you would think that there hadn't been a water bowl sitting next to him in the car all day. Then the next day we headed to my mom's house in Virginia, and the cat was happy as a clam. I think he got in the habit of wearing himself out all night in the hotel rooms, then sleeping all day in the car.

Happy kitty (That plastic tub is his regular bed. I know, he's weird.)

After a day at my mom's, which included a party to be described later, we then headed up to New Paltz, about a 5.5-6 hour drive. That was exciting because we drove separately so that my mom would have a car to get back, and because she had a whole bunch of house stuff loaded in her car to give me. That meant that I got to deal with the cat all by myself. Sometimes he was fine, but sometimes he was able to chose the most awful moments to get up in my face or try to climb over my seat head. We spent one more night in a hotel in New Paltz, then the next morning I did my walk through, and then he got to stay in the house while I went to the closing. He was scared out of his mind, but more information about moving in to come later!

Speaking of moving, here is a picture of my shuttle truck unloading stuff from my apartment onto the big truck, which could not fit in my apartment complex.


Needless to say, the cat was not pleased about having strange men come take all of our stuff, and slowly remove every one of his hiding spots in the process. If you follow my daily picture you have already seen this, but this was perhaps my favorite part of moving out - looking under the washer dryer: