In Transit: Alex's Weeks 12.9-13.9

With the exception of Skyla who lives in and is placed in Chicago, all the The HistoryMakers Fellowship fellows need to travel considerable distances to reach their respective host institutions. Even for Amanda, who moves to the relatively nearby city of Nashville, the logistics are headache inducing since her car and personal possessions are in different cities. With the exception of Chaitra, who already lived in Chicago when she was awarded the fellowship, all of the travelling fellows needed to store or move their possessions at some point before, during, or after the summer portion of fellowship. Amanda elected to place the bulk of her possessions in self storage in Tennessee whilst I kept most of my possessions in my Madison, Wisconsin apartment. My lease expired nine days before the summer fellowship ended so I regularly visited Madison on the weekends to disassemble our non essential Box Store furniture, pack up my office, buy boxes, and perform other heavy lifting activities while my blessed girlfriend Esther found an apartment in Annapolis and did just about everything else. Following the lease expiration, our landlord and neighbors allowed us to store our possessions in the basement while Esther stayed at her Great Aunt Dolores’ house in Menasha, Wisconsin; it was the first time the home was occupied by people and cats since her beloved “Aunty” suffered a series of debilitating strokes and was placed in a nursing home.

I wasted no time leaving Chicago. The agreement reached with our Annapolis property company stated we absolutely, positively needed to get there by Sunday, August 26th before 4 pm. I did not count on an early final day so I bused all of my Chicago possessions, minus my bike, to the THM office. The day went long as Julieanna gave individual fellows their quarterly review; they were truly cathartic experiences where the fellows and Julieanna had a dialogue about her wants, expectations, and hopes for the fellowship. The basis of our discussions were 2-3 page evaluation forms that graded us between “Poor” and “Excellent.” None of the fellows received an “Excellent” but, as far as I know, no one received a “Poor” either. We could not speak with complete accuracy about this since Julieanna kept the document under discussion; she said she would e-mail a copy. She also stated she would have a more active role in our work after placement but did not specify until August 30th--more to come on that. Emotions ran high and by the 7 pm several of us made our escape. Skyla drove me to the Amtrak station where the buses picked up passengers and my Madison friends Jordan and Amir helped carry my luggage to her condo. I only got four hours of sleep before I departed for the U-Haul depot and picked up a seventeen footer with an Alabama theme. After a few small delays I loaded the truck in earnest with the help of my once neighbor, Luca. Although she adeptly focused at loading individual items in ways that maximized space and reduced the risk of damage, she also saw the project as a whole and left strategic gaps for items she saw buried in the basement. Like a mother figure she admonished us for placing improper items at improper times. Her meticulousness made the project take longer but also allowed us to fit everything tightly inside.

Esther left with her ex-stepgrandmother Karon to meet her own mother Sandi near the Madison airport. Under the prearranged plan, Sandi and Karon would drive the U-Haul since Esther is not comfortable driving a truck and hates driving her own car for more than a few hours; with this scheme Esther and I could alternate driving and neither would need to drive the truck long distances. Before leaving Madison I picked up my friend Henry’s high-end personal sound equipment from his parents’ home. Henry was recently hired by the Univesrity of Maryland and we were his best chance to get expensive and fragile equipment to Maryland without exorbitant shipping fees. He also agreed to pay $500, which represents one-third of the total moving costs including truck rental, insurance, and its gasoline.

I could tell by the look on Esther’s face when I pulled the truck into the airport temporary parking lot that things were not going well. Her car, which many told her would not make the move without significant repairs, was having alternator problems. The mechanic who looked over her car several days earlier told her that would be the next thing to go but optimistically stated it would survive the trip; after she left for the airport and I left for Henry’s stuff the 1999 Grand Am behaved much in the same way Esther witnessed her grandparent’s car did when its alternator failed in the middle of nowhere. As a precaution against breaking down in the middle of our trip, we gave the certified check necessary to receive the keys to Sandi and Karon and left for Maryland; they were leaving approximately six hours earlier than planned and were taking a faster route so it made sense for that reason, too. We did not get one mile before the electrical problems cascaded further and we observed that all of her gauges were at zero. We drove to our old apartment and let the car die while she frantically made calls and solicited help via Facebook. We had no lodging in Madison and our cats, still crying in their carriers in the backseat, limited our options. An old friend of Esther’s saw the Facebook post and volunteered her mechanic boyfriend to replace the alternator. Following a quick jump at 9:30 pm we were off again!

Sadly Esther’s goal to have us alternate in a non-stop drive to Maryland ended when it was obvious I could not fall asleep with the cats incessantly meowing in protest. She gave me the wheel at midnight but I knew it was only a matter of time. We stayed at the La Quinta in Arlington Heights, Illinois but I only got five hours of sleep. I drove non-stop from there until a gas station in central Maryland.

 Somewhere in Indiana we realized we would get into Annapolis too late to unload the truck so Esther arranged a hotel for Sandi and Karon, who just arrived, and ourselves when we rolled into town at 11 pm. On Monday morning we unloaded the truck completely, unpacked vital boxes, and set up the bed and futon. Sandi and Karon left Tuesday afternoon but the unpacking, replenishing the refrigerator, and adapting to the new flora and fauna of Maryland continued throughout the week. Until coming to Annapolis I could count the number of cicadas I’ve seen—alive or dead—on a single hand. This included a shed carapace, a genuinely deceased one, and a splendid encounter with a male flying between trees.
Their incessant calling in Annapolis speaks to their numbers and they are frequently on our porch or littering the grounds.

Our apartment is a very pleasant one bedroom with parquet floors in the community of Eastport. It is on the fifth and final story of a building overlooking Back Creek, one of the many tiny bays in the Chesapeake that give way to pleasure craft slips and fishing docks. Our entire apartment complex inhabits the largest jut of land in Back Creek but our porch does not have a direct view. The residential community is mainly inhabited by middle aged professionals and active seniors who enjoy the scenery, access to Eastport and the historic downtown, and have money to burn.

Half our stuff unloaded, quarter unpacked

View to the Northeast

The rent in Annapolis is far higher than Madison—which is often criticized locally for its high rents—but our apartment is, relative to Annapolis, worth the price. We have a dishwasher, garbage disposal, and ice maker—things I haven’t had since I lived with my parents—and laundry on the floor. The porch is large and accommodates plants and furniture as well as our cats. Slowly but surely we are letting them outside without monitoring. I proposed to Esther that we keep them out there overnight to scare away the squirrels who enjoy defecating in the corners and on the railings but she is not game. Perhaps a plate or bowl of used cat litter will ward them off…

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