Moving out and up

My weekend was a blur of boxes and stairs, 28 steps up to the condo and driving, I wore out a path from new place to old all weekend

My movers got to the house at 8:15am Saturday and Martine’s got there about 8:45am. It took my movers 2 hours total to move the whole house, and the outdoor stuff.  It took his 2 hours to move his one room.  They didn’t move fast but boy were they fun to look at!

Glenn rolled up about the time that movers were just getting into full swing and we talked about a game plan.  He helped me pack up the fridge, he took that food away and met up with Mar at the new place.  They organized the food in the new fridge (MUCH smaller cu.ft. than my old one). He was the true hero of the day, I love and appreciate him so very much.  He basically directed traffic in the condo, rearranged boxes in each room, took on the whole storage room tetris situation and was just great comic relief for everyone.  Alina came after she got her taxes done, and Mar and her went off to Mar’s condo for a bit, which was cool.  The pets kept Mar up all night, and my real daughter and my work daughter are the same age, so they were heads down conferring about something that’s going on with Mar (I found out later what that was, ex boyfriend stuff as usual)

The move took 4 hours altogether, and we were left with a condo filled with boxes.  The three of them were all sitting but I felt like in the month leading up to that day, if I was standing still I was packing and after Saturday, if I was standing still I was unpacking. The four of us after a brief break, essentially unpacked the kitchen and the dining room and the only boxes left was the tv hutch, but we’re waiting on unpacking that until the Xfinity madness with the cable is squared away

To give some insight into my housemate, Glenn and I were in my room dealing with furniture issues, when he said he smelt something burning.  Come to find out, he lit a candle and had placed a towel down on top of it or near it.  Really?  While movers are coming and going?  I can’t with that guy seriously. I moved a whole house, he moved one room. He didn’t do a THING to assist with the rest of the condo.  In fact, he went to get a manicure, because his hands were a mess.  We’ve taken to calling him “The Genius”, when he is far from it

Glenn got to witness them trying to hoist my massive couch over the landing, while one of the movers stood on my butcher block.  That must have been traumatic to witness, I am glad I did not!

I had said that I wanted to get back over to the old place to clear out trash and get stuff that I left behind and Alina came with me.  Man, that place was horrific.  But we boxed up everything, got all the trash squared away and it was all ready for me to get over there early on Sunday to load the car and wait for the cleaners. And looking back today, I am embarrassed by how dusty and filled with animal hair everything was, and everyone got to witness that.  Mental note to make sure to move furniture when I clean!

To say I had a lot going on would be the great understatement of the week.  I was having some stomach/bowel issues that were causing me some grief, I am recovering from some gnarly oral surgery, I am moving, I am training for the AIDS Lifecycle, and I am preparing to get my first checkup after being in remission from colorectal cancer (ass cancer is what we call it in my house).  So it’s no wonder that after getting the rest of the house organized that I completely lost it when I saw my bedroom and how overwhelming it was. Mar felt so bad for me that when I was loading stuff into the storage from the car, she started moving and organizing boxes in my room.

I know I tell others that the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time, but sometimes I just get so overwhelmed with all the details that I get scattered all over the place.  Alina helped me with that, she said, just focus on one room or thing at a time.  Don’t be 5 steps ahead all the time.  As a logistics mistress, tough to do but that really helped for sure

Slept great in my new room, awoke on Sunday to the cacophony of geese and ducks that raise their babies in the ponds belonging to the complex behind ours.  I got up and out and over to the old place.  Loaded up the car, with goodwill donations and garbage and left the cleaners to do their thing.  6 hours later, when my landlord showed up, they were just finishing.  I had done all my errands for the day and had just about had it with move stuff.

Dragon lady was in rare form that’s for sure.  She argued with me before that I wasn’t leaving the appliances, and when I decided to actually leave them behind, she argued with me about that. She nitpicked every little thing that was wrong with the house and I was like, look, this place needs to be bulldozed and you’re worried that there is double stick tape on the kitchen floor?  I finally told her I didn’t have time for this, and walked out and left.  Upside is, she paid me for my rent overpayment, which was a surprise because I was all prepared to slap her (literally and figuratively) with that petition that I spent all my time on.

She made it real easy not to be emotional about leaving this place that has held so much life in the last 14 years

Drove home and went to Mar’s to get the cats, and she and I spent some time in my room unpacking and talking.  I ordered dinner and since we don’t have cable, we watched Netflix and ate dinner.  I have a feeling we will have a lot of nights like that.

All in all, it went really smooth, and we are nicely settling in.  I am going to wait to see how this place feels before I start hanging pics, etc.  I want it to be comfy like the last place but nicer, little more adult, if that makes sense?

I woke to the sound of rain on my private deck and I felt good that I had made the right decision, genius housemate or not