Jen’s job in Palo Alto starts May 9, but we’re taking off the prior week to drive west across America. I just hope we don’t die of dysentery.

We’ve spent the last two weeks coming up with lists of things to bring and saying we’ll start packing every tomorrow. We haven’t gotten too far. Jen’s been working six out of the last seven days so there hasn’t been much we could do together. We’ve got this weekend open and that should give us a good amount of time to make a dent in our preparations.

The travel nurse agency said it’s normal not to know where your exact housing will be located up to two weeks prior to your start date. What’s more is that we’re not sure whether we’ll be able to bring our dog, Piper. We got her last year and she’s half Boxer and half German Shepherd. Apparently, most apartments out there view German Shepherds as aggressive and have restrictions disallowing them from moving in. I don’t suppose they’d take a cute picture as proof that she’s a sweetheart. I mean, come on, how can you argue with a face like this?

So we may or may not be able to bring our puppy. If not, she gets to stay home with Aunt Melissa and the Hillson clan, who have graciously agreed to watch her in the unfortunate event of racist rental agencies.

I do wish we would at least get a peek into what apartment complexes we might be given. I want to see what part of town we’ll be in. It may be another week before we find out. In the meantime, we’ve got a lot of packing to do. We’ll start that tomorrow.