I’m away on business. I love that my job allows me to travel and with all expenses paid.  I have another interview to conduct tomorrow and then I will be heading home.  While I love traveling, I am looking forward to being back in my bed. My back has been hurting since Saturday, and all of the driving I have been doing–Vermont to Massachusetts, Massachusetts to Connecticut, and today Connecticut to Vermont. It’s been sort of a whirlwind tour of New England.

  
Not only did they cancel my flight yesterday and were rude about it, but today when I get to the airport my plane is delayed which means I cannot meet my connection. There are apparently no other possibilities to Montgomery because Delta and American won’t cooperate. My only option was to fly into fucking Atlanta and have my sister and brother-in-law, who hates me, come pick me up in Atlanta. Maybe I should have just made American fly me to Philadelphia and let me spend the holiday there at their expense while I tour the city. I have a feeling this is the last time I’m going to deal with American Airlines.

I got a call yesterday morning from American Airlines saying that my fight out of Burlington had been cancelled and to please call back to be rescheduled. So I called and the woman I talked to said that the next American flight out was today at the same time, but it was booked and the next available flight would be at 7:58 am Chrsitmas Eve. I thought, Well, that sucks. So I asked if there were any flights from nearby airports. Her response, “Nearby to what?”  I told her that I was in central Vermont and was there anything out of New Hampshire. She hung up on me put me on hold, so I had to call back and begin again. Luckily, the guy on the phone the second time was much nicer and booked me flights from the same time today as I had yesterday, but the only difference is that I’m flying our of Manchestee, New Hampshire. Since the forecast is for thunderstorms when I land and takeoff from any of the airports (Philadelphia and Charlotte), please pray that none of these flights are cancelled and that I don’t get stuck in an airport over night.

I drove all day as soon as I got my car and arrived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There was no way I could safely make it any further. I’ll leave first thing in the morning and drive the final 7.5 hours to my new apartment.

I’ll post my Moment of Zen later today.

  
So, my insurance company got me a rental car, and it looks like my car will hopefully be fixed tomorrow. With a badass SUV that they gave me to drive, I decided to go see what fun could be had in Knoxville. By fun, I’m not talking about sights, but I thought I’d check out the local gay scene.

Apparently, there are three gay bars in Knoxville. One looked really promising as they were having a free Texas Hold ‘Em tournament last night. Winner got $100. I used to play poker every Friday night with a group of friends when I was in graduate school, so I decided I’d check it out. I got to the bar and ordered a drink to wait for the tournament to start. The crowd was mostly older men. I have nothing against older guys, but it’s nice when they are friendly. While I tried to engage a few, it was obvious that I was an outsider and not that welcomed. The guys and gals there to play poker were obviously very serious about it. I was hoping for some fun and socializing. I figured out pretty quickly that this was not going to be the case. So I gave up on the place and left. With it being a Thursday night, I doubted that the other two gay bars would be much fun either. If this was New Orleans, something is usually happening every night, but this is Knoxville not New Orleans, so I decided to head back to the hotel to watch How to Get Away with Murder.

I have a confession here, I saw a sign for an adult store on my way back to my hotel and decided to check it out and see if they had anything fun. I did find a nice new toy (as luck would have it they were having a sale and the cashier gave a 20% off coupon to use), and my new toy is the perfect size for some play. So while I didn’t have fun playing poker because it looked a bit lame, I had a lot of fun with my new toy. So I amused myself and then went on to bed.

I expect that my car will not be ready until tomorrow afternoon, so I will go into downtown Knoxville and see some of the sights. Hopefully I can get back on the road tomorrow and maybe make it to Virginia.

First things first, I’m ok, sadly my car is not. On I-40 just outside of Knoxville, TN, I hit some large piece of metal (well about the size of my head) in the road. It punctured my gas tank. I had no choice as I was flanked by semi trucks. Luckily, no sparks were present, and I was able to pull off to the side of the road and call 911. The local fire department arrived and neutralized the gas and my car was towed to a local garage. The tow truck was kind enough to take me to a hotel. So for at least tonight I’m stuck in Lenoir City, Tennessee, in a hotel. Hopefully, they can get a new fuel tank quickly and get it installed today, and I can be back on my way. If they have the part, I was told they’ll move quickly, assuming the only damage was the fuel tank. If not, my insurance company will send me a rental car to use until my car is fixed but it would still mean I’m stuck in Lenoir City, Tennessee. Maybe I can explore some of nearby Knoxville.

I had to cancel my hotel reservations in Virginia and Albany. Hopefully, the hotel in Albany will not charge me as I cancelled a day in advance. My Virginia hotel was not as kind. They are charging me regardless because I did not cancel 24 hours in advance. They didn’t care that I had an accident.

On the bright side, there were no sparks and my car did not blow up with or without me in it. This is just one of those things that happens and it could have been far worse. I did enough crying and freaking out yesterday, I am going to try and remain calm. I will get to Vermont, come Hell or high water.

UPDATE (10am EST): The needed part was found in Knoxville and unless there is more extensive damage than they initially thought, my car will be ready tomorrow. The insurance company is sending a rental car to let me use until the car is ready. It means I’m stuck at the hotel until 4pm when they will deliver the car.

I’ve been getting things packed this week and ready to move. I found an apartment and put down a security deposit. It’s a cute two story 1850s house split into four apartments. It has beautiful hardwood floors, and I was lucky to find one in which all utilities are included. It’s a one bedroom apartment but has a good sized living room and kitchen. I’ve only seen it in pictures, but I know it’s the one I want. It’s in an excellent neighborhood and the price is good. It’s within walking distance of the museum, and on the same road if I choose to drive. And when friends and family come to visit, there is a bed and breakfast located conveniently next door.

Now that I have found a place to live, it’s all about the packing. Since I don’t want to rent and drive a moving van and tow my car up there, I have decided to take as little as possible. My parents had originally planned on going with me, but the timeframe changed and they will come up in a few weeks. They will bring any nonessentials with them when they come. I will pack clothes, a few appliances/electronics (tv, microwave, a few lamps, etc. that I will need), dishes, pots, and pans, some linens, books, and DVDs. I have the furniture I want already picked out and ready to be delivered once I have possession of the apartment and an address. Also, this way, I can buy what I need now and get the pieces I want later to add to the furnishings. I do wish I could pack the guy sitting in the car in the above picture in my car. He’d make a nice decoration for my new apartment.

So next week, I will be packing my car and getting ready to leave Wednesday morning to make the drive to Vermont over a couple of days. I know I will stop and visit a friend of mine at Virginia Tech and spend the night there on Wednesday night. I plan to spend a night somewhere on Thursday night maybe somewhere close to the New York-Vermont border (any suggestions) and then drive the rest Friday morning and get the keys and move into my new home.

So right now, that’s the plan. God willing, I will be in my new home on October 9. So far, God has been pretty willing, I pray he continues to be and this is a smooth transition to a new home.

  
I received nothing but good feedback from the group who interviewed me. They will not make a decision though until next week. They have two more interviews, but I’ve been told by several that they really like me and were very impressed with my credentials. They continued to spend most of the time trying to convince me that I want the job. I’m already convinced. I was trying to convince them to hire me. So I hope I did convince them that they want me, and I want to be there.

If it is in the morning when you read this, I am probably in an airplane flying home. I hope it’s an airplane more sturdy than the paper airplanes in the picture.