On the Move (And Some Other Thoughts)

Posted by Will on August 22, 2010

[Note: As we were rambling up and down I-85 this weekend, so does this blog post.]

This past weekend we were assisting my brother and Dad in moving David (brother, naturally) into his new digs in Durham, North Carolina. For those who are unaware or generally don’t care about David (it’s okay if you don’t), David is going to be conducting a Master’s program at Duke University.

Being the model sibling and sibling-in-law, we made the five hour trek down from D.C. to help physically move very heavy things, piece together cheap furniture, and collate David’s somewhat extensive and large collection of books (seriously, this was obviously his pride and joy).

I am certainly not above self-moves, but after saving a few hundred dollars and paying someone else to do it, I don’t see myself going back to the “oneself option” anytime soon. That being said, Dad once again rented out the elephantine Penske truck, hired some strapping young go-getters to assist in the loading (in this instance, our second cousins once removed – right Brittany?) and manhandled the behemoth on wheels up to Bull City (much respect). After this move, I can say with full confidence that Dad is officially retired from this type of move (I think I am too).

Another thing, those particle board based bookcases which can be bought on the cheap at your chain superstore, pieced together by dowels and screws and will undoubtedly be assembled wrong (there are a few pieces that may or may not be upside down) — I’m through with them. It took Dad and I (both marginally handy) about two hours to put together a five shelf six foot high bookshelf. There is certainly something to be said about not only a quality piece of furniture, but clear and concise diagram design (neither was found this weekend).

Unfortunately, with all of the manual labor and heavy lifting (literally), we did not get a chance to check out Durham. That spawned a conversation on the way home about college towns.

Essentially, there is no way, however much we have more than likely romanticized it, that Brittany and I will ever fall out of love with Athens. We have plenty of reasons (rational, irrational, sentimental, momentous) so wherever we end up in the coming years (most likely a college town), Athens will be number one in our minds and hearts.

But, we have had the chance to take a small sampling of collegiate burgs the past few years. In short, tops on my list would definitely be Ann Arbor. The size, the variety, the history … Despite spending a few days there, it definitely wasn’t long enough to take in the shops and the food and drink (oh the glorious food and drink). The downtown was very, very awesome. On the flip-side, unfortunately, College Park has got to be worst excuse for a college town. There is one very small strip of local eateries (not even local shops) and the atmosphere is the pits (Brittany concurs).

Hopefully, in the coming years when we are looking at collegiate towns to move to, we will have a clearer idea of our wants and ideal characteristics.

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