The move.

I swear to goodness that I have pictures of all this. Alas, they're on our camera, with Bob, who supposedly has the camera cable (but he hasn't uploaded them). Sigh.

So photoless for now...

The move. Well, it sucked.

Ok, really, I'm conflicted when it comes time to moving. It's EXCITING! It's something new. I've always liked changing a room around or switching out furniture, you know? EXCITING! A new place! Especially when you're moving from an apartment to (finally) a house. EXCITING.

But then the move comes in.

Our move got moved up a week, so half our stuff is organized and packed and labeled. The other half is well-packed... but it lacks as much organization, and labeling was abandoned.

If you're like me, the stress of "oh crud, this doesn't fit into that box..." is coupled consistently with "Oh crud, where did I put that tape!?" Thank goodness I'm ok with using my teeth to snip the end of the tape because seriously, I would have lost the scissors like 20 times.

The scenario of "oh crud, this doesn't fit into that box..." resulted in a thin layer of random things throughout the apartment. I guess it makes sense. The awkwardly shaped items, the breakable items that needed to go with other breakable items but there wasn't space, the things you "need" before you move out, the things you want ot keep handy to use right away when you move in, the last of a category of items that didn't fit into the last box you packed up of those items...

All the leftover items gathered up on the floor, coutertops, etc. I finally packed up all my work clothes into a box (see through plastic so I could easily find it). I told myself I had enough shoes at work and I plopped all my remaining shoes in a random box. Everything else: Random boxes.

As the layers got thinner, we finally just took two big boxes and piled everything else in. All the weirdly shaped items, etc. All breakables got their own boxes, of course.

And then the cleaning. Oy. I keep a pretty clean house, but cleaning during packing, well, didn't occur, and then on top of that, this is CLEANING, wherein the landlord determines how much money to give you back.

Drat.

So it went pretty much like this. I was about 75% packed by the time B came home. I had the truck when he got there, and I had already put 80 legal boxes of stuff into the truck.

Yes, 80. No joke. No, I don't own a small museum. It just looks like you have 50 billion belongings when you move.

I should also add that it was in the mid-90s outside AND inside. And this was down 17 stairs. I seriously considered constructing a ramp.

SO by the time B got home, I was TIRED. But no resting for the packers. We continued to work work work. I packed and put on the top landing, B took down to the truck.

Then sleep.

Saturday morning, we got up early and finished packing the truck. We decided not to go crazy and play tetris to get everything to fit (we did 2 runs instead). B did a goodwill run, but couldn't fit everything into his car. Crazy.

Then we were off. Picked up the curio at my friend Margaret's (she stored it for us since she lived near the seller and the seller was willing to transport, but only a certain distance). THen we went and picked up a lovely mission-style, craftsman-y TV armoire, a small table with 2 mission-back chairs, and a lovely mission-style single-drawer filing cabinet.

Then down to the new house.

Walk-through with the landlord went well. Then unpack all into the garage. We took breaks because the house had AC, outside did not. Uck it was HOT.

At one point when B was resting, I choose to open the box that had my CD player in it (that one had been boxed pre-chaos and was labeled). I went to b's trunk to get a CD... and locked his keys in his trunk. And I didn't realize it until about an hour later when we were looking for his keys.

Oh crud. I had to call AAA next morning to get them to come out. B gave me a spare, but it wasn't on my keychain and God knows where it would be in all the boxes.

Anyway, we piled at that point into the truck and again headed the 1.5 hours north. Yay for unlimited mileage on the truck!

We were exhausted.

We packed up about everything else we could handle. I took my car back down, B took the truck. Of COURSE there was nighttime construction on the road (welcome to Oregon; it's summer which means road projects) and an accident (nothing too bad, just road/rubberneck blocking), so we didn't get in until after midnight.

B had made the request of me that since i was in the car, could I stop by some fast food joint and get something to eat. So I went to McDonalds, and found out that particular McD's did not have credit card/debit card abilities between 12-1. It was 12:04 when I rolled in the drive through. I knew B was really hungry and tired, so I found an ATM, got $20, then came back. GRUMBLE.

Went home, ate, konked out. Next morning, we had thought to go down to B's, but we hurt all over and we were tired. And, everything at B's could really be moved by a standard car. We know that because we used standard cars to move things into there. Plus, B doesn't have to be out of there until the 31st (and the landlord is not budging, even if he finds a new tenant he won't start the new one until after B's lease is up. punk).

So no going down to B's. I called AAA while B slept, went to the grocery store and got breakfast, brought it back and fixed up stuff. B was so happy to wake up to bagels, OJ, coffee and a newspaper. Cute. Oh, and extra strength Tylenol.

We REALLY didn't want to, but we realized that it'd be best to go back up to my old place and clean. Me doing it this week after work would NOT be fun. So we did.

All that remains now in the old place are the cats, a big box, and an unclean kitchen. All else is clean.

SO that's the scoop. We're tired. Still. The garage is full in the new place, and there are minimal things inside. It feels like we're moving in slow motion. But, last night I actually cooked dinner (no fast food). Woo.

There are a few quirks. The landlord had to fix a shower door, and a towel rod. So he's doing that and wil lbe done with all projects tomorrow. There's no hot water. No joke. The stuipd gas company. I spent a while on the phone with them yesterday to convince them to turn it on TODAY rather than late this week. Seriously. They should have had a work order from me with instructions for no lapse of service.

Today I'm headed to pick up a cat, pick up some belongings (tehre's one BIG box), and then head home.

Tomorrow I'm headed to clean clean clean, pick up the other 2 cats, go look at a neat sculpture thing, and then go home.

Thursday I'm headed almost directly home; just a pit-stop mid-way to exchange something a crate and barrel.

I'm tired. I cannot wait until Saturday when we get to sleep in. I know... someday I have kids and exhaustion will be normal. True true. But still, right now, I just want to sleep. I long for Saturday.