Adventures in Moving

On Wednesday morning, I packed all my earthly belongings in the car (well, okay, just my summer/early fall clothes, my violin, and a few toiletries!) and set off for Tennessee. I made it to Lexington by about 1:30 p.m., and shared a late lunch with my dad. It was fun to see him, and I had him sign my dissertation.

After lunch, I went over to my grandma’s apartment and played the violin for her. I called before I headed over, and she remembered what I said long enough to tell her attendant that I was coming to play for her. When I arrived and pulled out the violin, she told me to dispense with the tuning and just start playing. I laughed and told her that I needed to tune; otherwise the music wouldn’t sound very good at all.

I played for her for about an hour and a half. She said that now that I was playing for her, she was no longer in pain. The attendant confirmed that she had been complaining of pain, and the music was just what she needed. I didn’t really know what to play, so I just grabbed a hymnal and started from the beginning. She sang along, and she seemed to know all the songs. I also skipped to the middle of the hymnal and played the Christmas carols. She loves the carols no matter what time of year it is!

After that, I got back into the car and drove the remaining three hours to Oak Ridge. I arrived at about 8:30 p.m. I unloaded my worldly possessions and then I ate the dinner that my better half had packed for me in Illinois, before heading out to the store to buy some food and other supplies for the next few days. In particular, I bought some Aleve because I could tell that the combination of driving eight hours and playing the violin for over an hour were bad news for my poor left shoulder/elbow/hand combo.

I finally retired at about 11:30 p.m. It was a little later than I had hoped to go to bed, because I had to get up early the next morning.