My journalism journey, part 32

So I got the job in Macon, Ga., at the Macon Telegraph and now I had to prepare to move. It was my first move with professional movers. But first, I had to find a place in which to live.

I was wrong in my last chapter. I didn't get an apartment when I was interviewing. The paper flew me back down again once I accepted the position so I could look for an apartment. I was hooked up with a placement person to see a variety of apartments so I had a place to live once the movers came.

The interesting thing about moving to Macon was I had found a family member living nearby. When I got my first computer, I started looking for the name "Briesch." One day, I found a web page with the name. It belonged to a Doug Briesch, who lived in Warner Robins, Ga., a town just south of Macon. I started emailing him to see if we were related and discovered we were. His grandfather, Wally, and my grandfather, Frank, were brothers. Small world, huh?

We tried to get together one of the times I was in Macon before I moved, but it didn't work out. But eventually, we met and became friends. We went to movies and dinners together when I lived in Macon. It was nice to have family nearby, even if the family was newfound. When my mom and my Aunt Bernice came to visit me, Doug had dinner with the three of us, and mom and Aunt Bernice enjoyed meeting him. Aunt Bernice remembered Wally and that he played the accordion.

Anyway, I digress. I found an apartment on the outskirts of Macon, not far from the Publix grocery store. It was a bit farther from the office than I usually would like, so I wouldn't be able to go home for lunch. And I couldn't find a two-bedroom apartment in my price range, so I went with a one-bedroom. I had enough room there to put my computer. There was a little sun porch (no patio or balcony) where I could put the litter box.

I got home from the apartment hunt and immediately got a cold. I was miserable but now I had to start pitching and packing. Now, I knew I had packers coming but I still wanted to get things cleaned out. I had accumulated a lot of stuff in eight years in Aberdeen, S.D.

The packers came in on a Wednesday. They were from Fargo, N.D., because there was no one locally. The two guys were kind of jerks. They were supposed to be in at 8 a.m. but didn't get there till nearly 10 a.m. Then they started in the bedroom and immediately one of the guys started complaining that the place was dirty and he was used to working in really higher class places.

He then spent another half hour on the phone to his boss, complaining that my house wasn't clean and he didn't want to work here. I offered to help clean up while they packed. His boss talked to me and said maybe they should get a cleaning group over and have the packers come back another time.

I said that wasn't a good idea because I needed to be in Macon the following week to work. And I needed to get out of my house by the next week too. I offered to help clean while they packed until I had to go to work.

Eventually, we reached agreement, although these two guys didn't really do a good job. They also were supposed to get the washer and dryer ready to move, too, and didn't do that.

On Friday, the moving guy arrived. I already had a good deal of garbage on the curb for garbage pickup day; when the truck came around and picked it up early Friday morning.

The moving guy was much nicer than the packers. He helped me finish packing, unhooked the washer and dryer, and said the packers had no reason to complain about the condition of my house. He said it wasn't that dirty. He said he had seen much worse.

So by Friday night almost all my stuff was packed. I had several more loads of garbage on the curb; the garbage truck came by a couple more times to pick up, fortunately. And I still had to go to work.

Now, most places I have worked had farewell parties for departing workers. Most had cakes for those employees. For some reason, I got a veggie tray instead of a cake. I was not happy.

However, after work, a bunch of us went out for beer or food, I don't know which. It was nice to have a gathering with my coworkers. I enjoyed working with them and would miss them.

Saturday morning, I woke up with a doozy of a headache. Later, I would know these were migraines. All I knew was I every time I moved, I felt like I was going to throw up. I went out to breakfast with my friend Donna Marmorstein. Then I had to finish cleaning and packing before I could hit the road.

It was a slow process. I could only do so much with a headache. I didn't get out of Aberdeen until about 3 p.m. and only made it to Sioux Falls. The kitties were all flustered by the move, too. It had been awhile since we had been on the road together. I was still sick when I stopped for the night, so I just found something to eat and had it in the room.

I'd stop at Mom's the next day before heading south to my new home in Georgia.