Thursday, June 16, 2011

Moving Has Too Many Changes

I secured a new job recently and will be making the move to North Carolina at the end of this month.  I will be living south of the Raleigh-Cary area for the first year to take on a data analyst position.  Then my hope is enter grad school down there, as a program I desire to enter is down in the area as well.  This isn't easy for someone like myself to pack up everything and go, but I also need to do this for my own personal and professional advancement.

Of course, the moving process is already giving me sensory overload.  There are so many small knacks that I have to put in both boxes and bags.  Then there is the cost of renting out a van.  There is the fact that I still do not have an apartment to move into yet and will be taking my chances on 3-5 select apartments once I get down there.  I'm still finishing the process of ensuring that my apartment sublease is okay.  The idea that I have to register my vehicle in a new state is made more complicated to me since I have to change titles over first, and then switch insurance, and then I can finally register for my NC license plate.

For the first time, I need to get my VIN.  Tell me less.

I have needed to talk with my parents a lot about this move and the steps needed for it.  As a man now in his mid-twenties, but one who had never relocated eight hours away, it's invaluable.  I don't want to screw any of this up, although I'm likely to realize "oh wait" a few times.  Aspies may seemingly take longer to reach that level of independence, but it's not because we don't have the ability to decipher.

To that point, I became one of those people who needed checklists to get everything accomplished.  I have my list of how to pack, people to contact, and general steps that are needed with website references.  In the next nine days I have to get many parts into boxes, and took a few pictures so I would know exactly how to pack everything.  The liquor stores and some department stores have a surplus of empty boxes which helped me out greatly.  I have a hard time with organization and time management, of course, so that leads me to use this list and schedule appointments and time slots to get certain tasks complete.  I hopefully can follow the list, as good as I am at making one.

Saying goodbye to people was also difficult.  I've been on a mini-tour, stopping in Levittown last weekend to visit friends, and next week I return to Central PA for three days.  I had my last GRASP meeting with the Philly chapter, which made me sad because it was hard to admit that I was leaving.  Bob and the crew have helped me with my self-awareness, to be sure.  Once time permits I would love to get a chapter started.

There's plenty of sensory overload that goes into moving because everything has to happen in one fell swoop. Let's see if I make it through.

Maybe I'll update this more.