It’s good news.

I said I’d post when I had good news, and now I do.

Here’s the short of it: We have found a new place to live, and thanks to all of you, we have the means to get there and make our first payment, so we can start living there. We’ll be moving over state lines and taking a long overnight trip in a U-Haul but after weeks, we finally have, definitively, a place to go, and the money to get there. And it’s all thanks to the selfless generosity of people like you. I can’t possibly express the kind of gratitude those actions deserve. But in the coming weeks and months, I will try.

If you’re interested in more, here’s a more in-depth rundown of what’s happened after the break.

Given less than a month to move out was a harsh goal. We didn’t have enough money to pay full rent, so we didn’t have enough money to get a new place. We also had no transportation, no idea of where to go, and very little hope.
We called many places and sent out lots of applications. One of our most promising leads was to a small apartment my brother and I would be sharing with one or two other people. We were led along and spent a long time waiting for a response, until the apartment manager basically stopped calling us, and wouldn’t answer our calls. He was ducking us like a bad ex-girlfriend.

Flash ahead two weeks. We’re almost out of time and our most promising leads (a nice, affordable little house to rent and an apartment we were “pretty much guaranteed to get”) fell through. At some point, one of the guys we were looking to move in with actually went back to that first apartment to talk to the guy, frustrated we’d just never heard back. When he returned, he returned with new applications, apparently going to try from scratch a second time. We didn’t even have the courtesy of a “no” the first time, so we weren’t holding our breath. On Friday, the apartment manager told us “we’ll definitely have an answer for you tonight”. This was the same thing he told us weeks ago, and sure enough, he didn’t call that night. Or the next. Or the next - but it was Easter Sunday, so that’s more understandable. With only days left before our final deadline of getting kicked out of our current living space, we had to make ourselves an ultimatum: If we didn’t hear a “yes” by noon today, we would have to go with an alternative. That alternative was going to be living in a motel for a few months, in a single room with three people and no internet connectivity.

This morning, at almost exactly noon, we finally heard back.
The answer was “yes”.

This was from the guy who originally couldn’t even take the courtesy to give us a no (so it seemed), and easily our longshot option. And yet, at the buzzer, this first apartment manager came through. Exactly what we needed, exactly when it counted. We’re leaving either tomorrow night or the next, driving all night, and hopefully arriving in the morning to our new lives in a tiny, rural farming town in California. After weeks of restless sleep, torturous anxiety, and fear of an uncertain future, we finally have good news, and a chance to rest easier.

And it’s all thanks to you.
I can’t possibly fit the thanks you deserve into this post. I should probably make another post later, maybe after the move, to express my gratitude more fully. But I cannot, in any way, ever hope to return the incredible kindness, selflessness, and compassion that I saw in the last few weeks. Long-time fans, supporters, passerbys, people who didn’t even know me. I felt their generosity in countless ways, not just in monetary donations, but kind words of support, “signal boosting” (a practice I wasn’t familiar with until my plea for help), and even offers of rides or couches to crash on. I know that online, especially with my bizarre and often inappropriate approach to humor I can often seem cavalier, but let me say in all seriousness that the depth and breadth of this gesture truly touched me. I am in your debt. And though I may never be able to repay the hundreds, even thousands of people who showed me their support, I will certainly try.

Perhaps I need to think long and hard about what the people want.