getting settled

Finally. I have landed in a city that I might just stay in for more than a couple months.

But not without a slight travel mishap. And as these things go, it happened mere miles away from our final destination. We were tooling along a Maryland interstate, licking the last sticky bit of ice cream cones from our fingers, when I heard the familiar sound of a tire blow out.

No big deal. Right? Well, that's until we pulled over and tried to unscrew the lug nuts and maybe one was rusted or a wire was crossed or it just was not our lucky afternoon, but one nut just slap broke off. After many tugs and many more profanities, pride was swallowed and AAA was called. Kenny came out in his badass towtruck, chatted us up, sprayed some WD40 on the lug and tugged the sad, limp tire off.

Again, all set. Right? Not so much. Kenny proceeds to screw on the spare tire to set us on our merry way, when he notices the spare doesn't fit. It's the wrong spare. How does this happen, I ask. Who knows? In all his days (and judging by his beet-red baby face couldn't have been many), Kenny has never seen this.

A short truck ride with Kenny and a couple hours later, I had a new tire and related accoutrements, $200 less in my bank account, and a slight buzz from beers at Ruby Tuesdays while we waited.

Finally, we made it. I think I am still having mixed emotions about moving and trying to get settled, as illustrated by my complete, unexpected come-apart in the parking lot after seeing The Break Up (and I don't think I was torn up by the acting). Maybe I'm still a bit stressed about hearing back about an apartment (fingers crossed, people, this place rules), still being in everyone's way - this time with all our stuff spread out across my friends' living room, finding work, being a grown-up and all the related business that goes with that. Yep, I guess that's it, and while I try to keep an oh-this-is-what-makes-life-exciting attitude, I am daydreaming of a time where I am finally settled. It seems so foreign these days, I wonder if it exists.