Part II: Moving in

I had big plans for my first night in Norfolk. I had been thinking about it for the latter half of my road trip. I'd brought a TV so I could watch "Lost" and "Alias" that night, order Papa John's pizza and it would be a great way to start in my new place.

Unfortunately, things don't always work out the way we plan.

I walked into my empty apartment (my furniture and most of my stuff wouldn't arrive for another week) and was somewhat overcome with doubt and loneliness. Walking into a big, empty apartment can do that, I guess. Here I was, in many ways starting from scratch and rebuilding my life anew -- again. Having moved many times -- between towns and within towns -- I wasn't worried about my ability to do it so much as I felt wary of doing it. Despite my fear of settling in life, sometimes settling down doesn't seem so bad. Or at least not moving to a different apartment every year.
My mini-emotional crisis was compounded by the fact that I discovered Papa John's didn't deliver to where I live and I didn't get any stations on the TV (cable wasn't hooked up until this past Monday). I had also made a trip to Target for some of the essentials but had either forgotten/couldn't find/decided to put off buying most of the things on my list, including air freshner because whoever lived here before clearly smoked.
Also included in that was a shower curtain -- but not just any shower curtain, the one I had previously had in Duluth. This would later become a bit of an obsession. I went back to Target three times over the next several days looking for the shower curtain I wanted and the store was always out of it. I could say that I was so intent on getting that particular curtain simply because I liked it, but from a psychological perspective, I think I was probably just trying to salvage something familiar in my new settings. (It occurs to me that my choice of apartment could have been influenced by the same thing, seeing as how I live right by a mall, a Target, a Home Depot, an Olive Garden and a grocery store, just like my last apartment in Duluth.) And yes, I could have just kept the old shower curtain, but it was old and ready to be trashed. At any rate, I finally ended up driving to a Target in the next city to get it there.
So that was my multiday quest for a shower curtain.

Anyhow, so I was feeling a little sorry for myself for the first couple of hours in town, but I was cheered up several things:
1) I arrived to find a bunch of mail, including a "housewarming" letter from Germany, which was a total surprise and incredibly touching.
2) I talked on the phone to my parents and much of the Duluth gang.
3) I had thought to bring my video games along and began playing "Resident Evil 4," which is fantastic.
4) I also watched the commentary from "Faces of Undeath," a little-known but incredibly funny zombie movie. It's a cult classic. Trust me.

So that was my first night here. It ended well, or at least as well as it can with me sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor for the first of many nights. But you know how it is...

Coming up:
Odd things about my apartment
and
How I went to pick up a pizza and ended up buying a bed