I am thinking about the day after we arrived in Miami almost three years ago.

Relocation.

Part of being in a new place is not knowing where you are.  Another part of being in a new place, is when you are staying in a suburban La Quinta near your husband’s new office with two cats and one liter box and one car (which was with him at the office). You are waiting for your stuff to be delivered so you can move in to your place. You are missing your friends and family and job and normal with an intensity beyond tears. Where you are staying smells like a toxic cocktail of ammonia and cat urine. Getting cat litter becomes as vital as air. If I was gonna make it in Miami, I just needed to get cat litter. I just needed to get the cat liter.

I took action.

I downloaded the Uber app on my phone. I had been an Uber traveler on many occasions, but never truly guided the process. The first thing I learned was the importance of providing the driver the right location. I could not figure out how to drop the pin in the right place, and finally chose what I thought was the right La Quinta from a drop down menu.

After waiting 10 minutes, I called the driver. He spoke Spanish and I tried to communicate the correct address of the street corner on which I was standing. After several minutes of struggle, he somehow found someone who talked with me and found out where I was. He arrived soon after we stopped talking on the phone.

I would not be denied cat litter.

Once in the car, I let him know I needed to get to Walmart. During the ride, he practiced English and I practiced Spanish. I explained we had just moved to Miami from Cincinnati. He explained this was his first day driving Uber. I apologized for the confusion about the pick up location. He made sure I wanted to go to Walmart, just in case I had gotten the destination as wrong as I had gotten the pick up.

We arrived at the Walmart. I found kitty litter. I called Uber. I took a much smoother Uber ride back to the hotel. I set up the litter box.

Relocation is hard, even when the new place is exciting and beautiful, and you feel like you are supposed to immediately love it, and be profoundly grateful for the opportunity to be there.

Sometimes fresh kitty litter carries the same significance as water in a desert. When everything about life becomes strange and lonely. When the only thing you want is to take a yoga class at your yoga studio thousands of miles away. When you want to hop in the car and go hang out with your family and they are thousands of miles away, too. When the only thing you feel you have any control over is cat litter. Simply find a way to get cat litter.