A Dispatch from the Edge

My mom recently told me that a friend of hers read Anderson Cooper’s book, Dispatches from the Edge* and thought it was something I would enjoy reading. When my mom told me this, I was in Nowheresville, Pennsylvania and it inspired my own Dispatch from the Edge:

Now that I’m unemployed I’ve been searching for things to do to fill my time. It’s hard going from working 12 or 13 hour days to having nothing to do. It’s like driving 90 miles an hour and slamming on the brakes. But luckily my aunt and uncle were there to help me with the adjustment. My uncle just got a promotion and his job moved him and his family to Pennsylvania from Texas. I’ve never had East Coast family out here with me so I was more than happy to take them up on their offer to go stay with them for a week.

I rode the Amtrak train up to Philadelphia and then out to Lancaster where my aunt and uncle met me at the station. Now before I go any further, let me clear something up. You are going to read Lancaster and want to pronounce it Lan.cas.ter, but you would be mistaken. The correct pronunciation is Langk.i.str. I didn’t want you to get laughed at by the locals because they can be pretty ruthless. Trust me.

Anyway, we left the station and drove out to my aunt and uncle’s new house. They live in a suburb of a very small town, so we were definitely out there. It had snowed a couple of days before so it was nice to be out of the big city and to see rolling hills and open fields covered in snow.

My uncle had work all day and my cousin had school all day so my aunt and I would just stay home and unpack boxes and flatten paper. The moving company they used packed every box with all of this paper and so we had to flatten it, pile it up and bundle it for the recycle bin. Just to give you an idea, this picture shows what we were up against.

This was our finished product:

This aunt and uncle lived in Logan, Utah while I was going to college so it was a lot of fun to catch up with them and spend time with them again.

Since we were so close to Amish country, we went on an adventure with the goal of seeing a horse and buggy. I thought the first step would be to drive further out into the country, but I was thrown off guard when I found out the easiest way to see a horse and buggy is to drive to the local Wal-Mart. Apparently the Amish are nuts about Wal-Mart. Who knew? Wal-Mart even has special horse and buggy parking stalls set up in their parking lot to accommodate any Amish people looking for one-stop shopping.

Other highlights of the trip included:

- Riding the Amtrak like Joe Biden through Wilmington, Delaware
- Finally getting the chance to sleep in
- Rocking out to the hits of the 60s and 70s all day while unpacking boxes
- Going to church and getting a personal invitation to the upcoming unemployment fair. Twice.
- A peaceful drive through Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse, Pennsylvania (insert obligatory joke here)
- My aunt backing up over a stranger’s mailbox

It was a great trip and it made me really excited to finally have some East Coast family. Any West Coast family looking to join the party knows where to find us.

*UPDATE: I read Anderson Cooper's book and loved it! I recommend it to everyone.