To my surprise, Mom decided to head to Washington straight away. Apparently, covid-19 cases are spiking sky-high in most states and especially in Utah, and Mom didn’t want to take any longer than we really had to travel. We spent a night at a dingy Airbnb in Utah, then another night at a small Airbnb in Idaho, and made it to our house in Gig Harbor, Washington state early the next afternoon. To be honest, the drive didn’t feel very long, likely because I’ve just grown used to long drives thanks to this summer’s adventures.
I’m feeling quite ambivalent about the move. On one side, I am sad to leave Colorado. I broke down in tears while I was talking to my dad over the phone the night before I left. I will and do miss Colorado, for it’s home and most of my closest friends and family live there. However, Dad was right. I wouldn’t have been able to see him (or anyone else besides my mom and brother) for the rest of the year even if I’d stayed. He wasn’t comfortable seeing me in-person because of the pandemic, especially since his youngest son has been going to school in-person.
Still, while life in Washington state won’t really be any different than life in Colorado during the rest of the pandemic, I feel very uneasy being so far away from most of those I know and love. I don’t know how to explain it. I just felt so much safer being closer to people I know and love, even though I wouldn’t have been able to see them in-person until probably next spring or summer. It’s also comforting to know that I’ll be back to Colorado in the late spring for sure, but may return sooner if we all get too homesick. However, right now, we’re all sick of being on the road. We’ve done enough adventuring for one year.
Despite my sadness, I think I’ll do alright here in Washington. Our nearest relative lives five minutes away from us. Her name is Tracy, and she’s one of the few relatives on the west coast who really understands me. She was one of the first people to point out that I may be on the spectrum long before my psychologist confirmed it. Tracy is a psychologist herself, so she knew what she was talking about when she theorized that my introversion, anxiety, and intelligence were signs of me being mildly autistic, among other things. I wish I could’ve been diagnosed much sooner than I was, but I’ll save the rest of that for a different piece.
The point I’m trying to get to is that I trust Tracy, especially since she understands me. She doesn’t take my aloofness personally, and she admires me for just being, well, me. She and I also share a love for sushi, so I look forward to getting together with her in a couple weeks and having a little sushi party. Of course, we’ll be safe. Tracy and her little crew has been quarantined since March (Washington state is still under a stay-at-home order), and my little crew will quarantine completely for two weeks before seeing anyone. Then, assuming we all stay healthy, we’ll finally be able to see each other, and the sushi dinners can commence!
The fact that she’s only a five minute drive away from the house, and she lived at my current house for many years before we bought it, definitely helps put me more at ease. Thanks to her, I don’t feel entirely alone in Washington state. I have a person I can reach out to whenever I want and/or need to, and she’s more than willing to help out however she can.
In some ways, Tracy has already helped us settle in. Last night, I had to sleep on the couch since my mattress got lost in the Oregon fires. It was warm downstairs so I opened and window and fell asleep. I woke up early in the morning and it was 48 degrees inside the house. We would’ve frozen to death if Tracy hadn’t instructed us on how to operate the heat in the house!
You’d think the house would have central heating, but it doesn’t. Instead, it has individual radiators in several rooms throughout the house, as well as a gas fireplace you have to light with a lighter. So, Mom and I spent the morning turning on every single radiator in the house and trying (and failing) to locate a lighter, so it would warm up. Thankfully, the radiators did their job. When the house was warm, we had to call Tracy again and ask how to turn off the heat and turn on the AC. Like the heat, the house doesn’t have one thermostat for the AC. There are a few units throughout the house that are operated via remotes. We soon had the AC running on a timer, so after a few hours, the house was finally comfortable. Thanks, Tracy!
During and after that little fiasco, all three of us were hard at work going through boxes. So far, we’ve got most of the kitchen unpacked and put away. I also have most of my bedroom put together (I just have to wait for an air mattress to arrive before I can sleep in my bedroom, and hopefully my actually mattress will find its way to Washington somehow). My little brother impressively has his whole room unpacked and set up. And, we even managed to find and hang up a few pictures. Slowly but surely, my house is coming together.
We have pretty much all the time in the world to get settled. Right now, it just feels like another excursion. It will be a long time before Washington feels more like home. But, at least I’m already feeling pretty comfortable. I guess I was meant to travel and quarantine simultaneously all summer, so I would be ready for this move I didn’t think would ever happen. Now that it has, I’m gonna make the best of it. Tomorrow, I'm gonna purchase my fishing license!