Tested

I’m back home. The drive back up here was worse than the drive down. Something’s up with my car again. Something with the steering again, and that pisses me off. I thought I had this fixed. Guess not. It happened once I hit the snow in Idaho. Once my tires drove on that snow, I noticed something happen to my steering, and when I stopped to get gas for the first time after, I really noticed the difficulty in turning my wheel. I’m going to have to figure something out tomorrow to not only get this fixed, but also not pay what I don’t have to. I’m already more in debt than I would like; to add even more right now is out of the question.

This trip really tested me. I’ve never driven this far and this long in my life, and I’m glad I did. It forced to simplify my day and do only the essentials. While in San Diego, I was forced to let go of a few things I didn’t want to let hamper my time there. Food was the main one there. Fortunately, since a lot of my family also reads this blog¹, they knew beforehand about my diet choices. They brought it up a few times, which was nice, but I didn’t want to be the one eating “rabbit food” while they ate pizza and donuts. I didn’t eat pizza or donuts, but I did eat burgers, chicken wings, and spaghetti. So. Many. Carbs. It all went straight to my head, and I woke up every morning feeling bloated and lethargic. Back to my regularly scheduled diet.

I spent most of today building my IKEA furniture and unpacking all my boxes of stuff. I love everything. From my two bookcases, to my side table, to my rug, and to my bed, I love it all. My bed has to be the piece I love the most. I’ve slept on twin size beds for who knows how long, and my new bed is full size. There’s so much more space! And my mattress, it’s soft and cozy and I feel so comfortable here. All my books are in the wider bookcase, but since I couldn’t fit all of them there, I have many of my books still stacked on the floor. The smaller bookcase I bought for my DVDs also isn’t big enough for my all my DVDs, but I was able to stack many of them upwards. I placed them in front of the other DVDs. I’ll have all week to reorganize and whatnot. This also means I have to downsize a bit, which is totally okay since that’s what I planned to do three years ago, the time before I moved up to Montana and left all this stuff behind. Now it’s back, so many of my long-dormant plans are back, too.

I’m glad I don’t have to drive to California any more. This really was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and I’m glad I did it. It will end up costing me a lot more money than I originally planned, even with the savings in gas from the recent price drops, but that’s something I’m going to have to live with. This trip was worth it, and I’m glad I planned for it, did it, and came back safely. I learned a lot about myself, what I’m capable of, and it just makes me excited for the future.

Anything feels possible, and now I have a home to do it all in.