I moved out of my apartment this weekend. One of my dearest friends, Steve Hiltner, was also in town from New York City. He helped me move the final things out of my apartment and we grabbed some Bodo's and ate on the Lawn before I had to go work at the brewery.
I finished work at midnight and my plan was to drive 20 minutes outside of town to sleep on my buddies futon. I was exhausted and one of my friends in town offered an air mattress in their living room. Which I jumped on, quite literally. When I woke up in the morning the plan was to grab breakfast with Steve. I left my friends apartment at 9:20am and Steve said he could do breakfast at 10am. It was at this exact moment that I realized I was without a home. I didn't have anywhere I could spend the next 40 minutes. I could go to a coffee shop, or the library, but they wouldn't be my own spaces. It was at this point that I realized that this will be the next 14 months. It is officially very real feeling. I can't change my mind and ask for a different option. It is happening.
We ate breakfast at Marie Bette, which is a delicious new French bakery in Charlottesville and I saw Maddie, who works there and is a friend from church. She also just moved down the street from my old place when her and her new husband Sam. Sam was super helpful in thinking through the crowd funding piece of #59in59 as he has run two successful campaigns for his band The Hill and The Wood and a community music space called The Garage. I went back into the brewery and met up with Steve before he took his bus back to NYC. The last time I left Charlottesville in 2007, Steve and I were sitting on the Lawn with 20 other friends after graduating from UVa several days earlier. He hopped on his bus and promised to send me some single copies of Shakespeare along the journey and offered his mom's house as a starting off point, as she lives 15 minutes from Cuyahoga Valley in Ohio.
I had to move some final things out of my apartment and a fraternity brother, Matt Hanna, helped me clean out the fridge and we celebrated the move by having a beer at Three Notch'd where we ran into my big brother from the fraternity, Glenn Moulder. Glenn has a 4 month old son and we don't get to see each other too terribly often. Our final moving item was dropping a keg off with Mitch who is the brewer at South Street Brewery. We chatted with Mitch and Jess, his wife, on the porch for a couple of minutes and realized that we have known each other for the 5-years that they have lived in Charlottesville. Matt and I had some dinner and then I drove out to where I am staying with some friends for the next two weeks.
It is weird to be leaving a place that is your home. A place where you have your friends and your routines, your restaurants and your favorites nooks. Charlottesville is that place for me, Monday night board game night, McGrady's soccer, hot and sour soup at Marco and Luca's, late night drinks at C&O. I know the secret parking spots and the quick ways to get around town, but I don't have a house anymore.
In two weeks it all changes. The parks will become both my house and my home.
Moving out one of the final loads, the final boxes are always the worst because it is random stuff that doesn't fit anywhere nicely. As always, I am wearing a wolf shirt