The Engineer Whisperer (and other moving tales...)

This last week has been quite exhausting (although on the plus side, I’ve managed to surpass the “recommended” 10,000 steps a day quite easily this week). Rick had the flu all last week, so most of the moving duties seemed to fall on me (except for Rick’s study, which is like a swirling vortex of chaos that I avoid at all costs – lest I be unwillingly drawn into some sort of unorganized black hole from which there is no escape…). I don’t even know how many trips I made last week between the old house and the new one… packing up items at the old house until the MDX was full of boxes, carting it all over to the new house, and unpacking as much as I could so I could return to the old house with more empty boxes. And since we now have the unfortunate privilege of owning TWO houses, we scheduled an open house for Sunday. This probably didn’t seem like a very big deal when we planned it, however, we didn’t count on Rick running a fever for six days straight or on me wearing myself out to the point of collapse every evening. Needless to say, we found ourselves in a marathon of packing, moving, and cleaning on Saturday, which, even with the help of my parents, threatened to stretch into an all-nighter. Good thing we had coffee. Lots and lots of coffee…

So now that I’ve rested a little bit, and my limbs no longer feel like they might fall off at any moment, I can actually sit down and write something for the blog, which has been sorely neglected all week. Perhaps when things in this house are looking a bit more “put together” I’ll take some pictures so you all can see the new house. But in the meantime, I present a list of Things I’ve Learned During the Move:

1) You can never have too many paper towels.

Somehow, I had the foresight to purchase a package of a dozen rolls of paper towels right before we began moving, and I made sure to stash a few at the old house as well as at the new house. Once we started cleaning for the open house, it became apparent that I’d need at least one more roll of towels. So when I brought one of the carloads of boxes to the new house, I placed a roll of paper towels right next to my car keys so I would have no chance to forget them. Unfortunately, I forgot them. (My mom brought some over a little while later, so a paper towel crisis was averted…)

2) I know why the bowled fish swims… or, er, something like that.

Our windows were measured for blinds last week, and hopefully they’ll be here tomorrow – I can’t wait, because it’s been like living on a stage all week. I feel like people are buying tickets to watch the show, and I’m the act they’ve all come to see. Happily, the blind lady (I mean the lady who sells the blinds… she’s not actually a BLIND lady…) left behind a few “temporary” blinds for the bedroom windows…

3) My dad can fix anything.

I know lots of kids think their dads can fix anything, but seriously – my dad really CAN. Whether it was replacing an unwieldy shower rod or devising a way to move some unwieldy futons, my dad managed to figure it out. If it’s unwieldy, it’s no match for my dad and his engineer mind. Rick has dubbed him “The Engineer Whisperer.”

4) You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but apparently old cats become new cats.

We moved all the pets over on Thursday, which I wasn’t looking forward to. Echo always gets stressed out by new situations, and Allegro has never appreciated a change of venue, either. And I had no idea how Piva would handle things. Echo behaved pretty much as I expected – nervously panting and drinking copious amounts of water the first 24 hours in the new house. And Piva spent several hours huddled near the sink in the laundry room (and IN the sink in the laundry room). But Allegro – the cat who used to run under the bed every time the doorbell rang or a stranger came into the house – simply meandered out to the living room, casually eyed our new couch and loveseat, and lazily planted herself on a cushion. It’s already become “her” couch location, and she seems quite comfortable. In her old age, Allegro has become a totally different cat…

5) You have WAY more stuff in your house than you realize.

This is something I figure out every time I move, and then I seem to forget about it until I move again. I just can’t believe all the books and knickknacks and random papers and small appliances in my house – a few of which are STILL back at the old house because I haven't had a chance to move them yet. Where does all that stuff COME from???

Well, I'm off to make dinner in the new kitchen... IF I can remember where I put all the pots and pans and dishes...