Endless lists...

I live in Mt. Airy now. How wacky is that? It hit me tonight as I was driving home after coffee with Chrissy and Eleanor that my route home did not involve the Schulkill Expy, and hopefully not a big parking search. And lo, there was my spot in front of the house! My house.

But in the end, it's not so strange. All of my stuff is here, and it's the same stuff. I still use the same pots and pans, need to get the same lunches together to take to work. It's just the underlying set-up of each day is still in the formative stages, i.e., the house is a mess.

Which is only natural given that I moved in two days ago. And given that I'm still missing a bunch of furniture, I cannot really decide how things will be set up, where all of the bookshelves will go, etc.

Instead I'm making lists:

-Lists of things to buy

• A hose


• A third telephone


• A spade


• A new lampshade for my bedside table

-Lists of things to do

• Plant the flat of pansies on the porch


• Wash all of the pots, pans, dishes, etc., and decide where they will go in the kitchen


• Iron the now washed curtains and hang them


• Sweep, sweep, sweep


• Figure out an interim solution for linen and hanging clothes storage


• Arrange furniture


• Unpack


• Taxes

-House projects that need doing sooner than I thought

• Closets deep enough for modern hangers


• Shelves in closets for linens and other storage


• Shoring up the kitchen and laundry room walls and floors

And on, and on...

Sage advice...

Never have PMS while you're moving. It's just a bad idea. The emotional impact of, well, everything is so much more than it would otherwise be. I think.

The thing that has gotten me over the past few days is the constant remark from many people about how much stuff I have. And with the exception of a very few people, it's never, "oh, how many lovely, worthwhile things you have," it seems to be, "you have a lot of crap you shouldn't have and now you're going to make us move it."

This is, of course, extreme, but I'm not sure that it's wrong.

So as a result my reaction has been to pack and move as much as possible myself with mainly the help of my family who understand and share my love of stuff, and who will love me no matter what. And the comments push all of the buttons about my inner guilt about having so much stuff, though I love it, and not wanting to ask people for help because they might say no, or tease me about my stuff and how much I'm making them carry.

This moving/packing/buying a house/leaving my apartment and Center City thing has been emotional from the beginning, and uncharted territory for me for the most part. It's easy to forget that people go through this all the time and survive. And maybe the secret is that everyone has too much stuff, but that it's easier to notice someone else's than acknowledge your own.

So for the next several days, please bear with me and I wade through the emotional minefield. I ask for patience and kindness.

Who thought it was a good idea to have 7,000 items of hanging clothes???

Several thousand of which I moved today. Boy was that a crazy chore:

-load all clothes into car - ~8 trips, plus two trips for the rest of the rubber stamps
-drive to Mt. Airy
-park in front of house with flashers on - the only spots are too far down the block to unload stuff; cars can mostly squeeze by
-move clothes currently on first floor to 2nd floor racks - 4-5 trips up stairs
-take clothes from car to 2nd floor - 6-7 trips
-take clothes from car to first floor - 4-5 trips
-periodically drop pieces of clothing onto the street, against the icky stuff on the stairs; step on pieces of clothing
-wonder where the nearest dry cleaner is
-wonder how we will get downstairs clothing and rack upstairs...

Boy am I happy that chore is over. Ick.

The house is getting quite full of stuff that needs to be distributed to its proper place, but I'm hoping to have help with that on the weekend. Thank goodness for Mom. If she hadn't come to pack with me this weekend, I don't think I would have gotten a quarter of the stuff done that we did together, including a trip to Ikea. She's amazing!

In the house/out of the apartment

-All books
-All rubber stamps and craft items
-All hanging clothes
-All but essential bathroom items
-All but essential linens
-All but essential kitchen items including pots & pans, plates, bowls, etc.
-All breakables - china, pottery, vases, lanterns
-All tea pots
-All but essential fuzzy critters

Still to go:

-the essential stuff
-pictures, calendars, and other stuff on the walls
-curtains
-food
-electronics
-small appliances
-large appliance (a/c, microwave)
-furniture
-bed
-clothes hamper full of dirty clothes

Not to mention the tons of little things that will appear between now and then - the fans, lamps, objects that defy boxing, etc. But we're getting there. The trunk is packed with things I will take up after class tomorrow night. I will do the same for Wednesday. Food on Thursday, I think.

I'm having two house projects done in the near term. Right now the 2nd and 3rd floor hallway walls and ceilings are covered with this spray on popcorn goo that has left sharp points that scrape your skin, grab your clothing, and flake off leaving a constant mess on the floor. That's going away sometime this week - at least from the walls. I'll do the ceiling later. $180 - I'll take it!

And then next week I'm having my one leak fixed, installing bleeders on the two radiators that don't have them, giving the refrigerator its own circuit, and making sure the outlets in the kitchen and laundry room are properly grounded. Who needs $600 anyway.

I'm excited that I'm getting close. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. Will I be anywhere near unpacked by Passover - I doubt it, but the journey will be fun!!

My apartment looks like a bomb hit it...

...but in a good way, I guess.

Mom and I had a great dinner, got home just after 8, and proceeded to attack. Mom packed breakables in boxes that are really too heavy, but well packed, while I attacked the front closet. The good news about the closet is that as full as it is/was, many of the items were already contained in boxes, bags or crates. Find of the night - the box in the bottomw back corner in the closet of stuff mom gave me from the house in Bayside - still all wrapped in newspaper. I can't wait to see what's actually in there...

So I need your advice - should I try and strip some or all of the woodwork in the house. It's fairly likely in the period the house is from that the woodwork was painted white. But nevertheless, I'm thinking about it. Here are two pictures. Tell me what you think.

This one is my house.

This one is from a house one block west on Durham

The stripped cabinet is gorgeous with the glass top and mirror panels, not unlike what mine had originally. I thought I'd try the cabinet for a test piece. Thoughts??

And more packing...

Well, Packing Weekend, Part II is imminent. Mom has just arrived, and is now on the parking oddysey, and I'm sure between the two of us, we will get the job done, or much further along.

The books are all in the house, as are all of the dance materials, most of the critters, and the first few boxes of stamps and craft stuff. Thanks to George and Paul who helped me carry it all in after class tonight. This weekend I want to get in the kitchen stuff and a lot of the hanging clothes, and the rest of the stamps. And whatever else we can manage.

I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow, but there it is. Mom will receive the appliances. I will lament the non-appearance of the Texas furniture. Tomorrow evening we will converge for more packing.

Did I mention that I hate packing. I just want to be in the house. I don't want to go through the process of having gotten there.

Ramblings on the move

Well, the rubber stamps remain impervious to efforts to get near them, but the books are all in boxes and ready to be brought over tomorrow night, as are the dance binders, one box of linens from the bathroom and who knows what else. I'm guessing I can fill the car pretty well with thes things and other stuff that was already in boxes - boxes of shoes, if nothing else.

I'm kind of worried about the Texas furniture and the fact that the company supposedly delivering it only has phone numbers and email addresses that don't reach them. And they have the furniture and over half of the delivery fee. And they may not deliver the furniture when they are supposed to. Jenny says to call the police. Mom says not to worry. Any I hope she's right, but I smell a rat.

Tonight I dug up one last box of letters and cards (one last box until I find the next one...). It was even a prety box meant to hold photos or other keepsakes. I went through the box and saved the two spools of thread, a pair of scissors, and my immunization record from 1991, and threw the contents of the box and the box itself out. Trash night tonight. Everything goes right on the curb.

And speaking of trash night, I now know where I can get a recycling bin. I'm disappointed to be moving to a place that doesn't recycle plastics. It was so exciting when they started taking plastics in center city. I'm still going to separate them out from the trash and take them somewhere to be recycled when I have a load. It's such a shame that single stream recycling isn't in all parts of the city yet.

Tomorrow the plan is to leave work expediently, eat dinner, perhaps pack a few last boxes, and then pack the car. I will teach class, and then go up to the house to unload boxes. By the time I head down, mom should be here. That will be the most helpful thing to keep me working - company.

Keep sending good packing thoughts.

These books are made for packin'

I have this horrible feeling that I packed one of my library books...

One of the downsides of packing and moving is that you get into this zone where you're going to pack this first and this next, and oh, this would fit so perfectly in that box and where is the thing, and on and on... And in the midst of it all, it's so easy to forget that the all of the ordinary tasks of life have to get done too - the laundry, the dishes, writing the dance programs, the grocery shopping. Tonight I managed to get home from Swarthmore by 10:30, make dinner for tomorrow and the next night (gotta get to GCD early tomorrow for a nominating committee meeting - that goes on too), fold yesterday's laundry, wash a bunch of dishes and make a bunch of others dirty. Was there any packing in that list. Nope. And it's after 12:30 and the only other thing I can manage is bed, maybe preceded by some stretching.

But then, I knew that Tuesday would be hopeless for packing. I'd just hoped I could fill a box or two before bed. Now I think sleep would be more useful. Tomorrow... Tomorrow after the dance I will find parking immediately and fill a bunch of boxes to load into the car on Thursday before class and take them up to the house Thursday after class. Then Mom will be here to give me the impetus to keep going. Tomorrow I will box up the last books and then attack the rubber stamps and craft items around my desk. I wonder if a lone person can handle the extra-sticky to itself plastic stuff that I intend to wind around the rubber stamp boxes to keep them shut in transit. Guess I'll find out.

Please send along some extra-strength packing virility with a chaser of arm and back strength