A few days back, Rich and I were reminiscing about our first move after we were married. We've moved many a time in our years together (eleven, if I counted correctly). But that one is sort of memorable--we were really starting out our lives together, moving off for the first time to a place where we knew no one. But what we were talking about was just how different that move was from this one. Back then we rented a small U-Haul, loaded it up, and drove the 5-ish hours to our new home. We arrived about 4:00 in the afternoon. By about midnight, we'd unloaded the whole truck, carried everything up the two flights of stairs to our apartment on the third floor of this old house, cleaned the place, and completely unpacked and set up shop.
Yeah, it's a different story this time. We've been here for almost four weeks now and we're nowhere near being fully settled in. Nowhere near. But life is different now. It's a bigger place to get ready, a filthier place to get ready. We've gone from a family of two humans and one cat to a family of five humans, two cats, one dog, one tarantula, two snakes, six mice, one scorpion, one giant millipede, a handful of hissing cockroaches, two frogs, and a small tank of fish and snails. (Please forgive me, if I've forgotten anyone.) We have A LOT more stuff now, despite our earnest efforts at downsizing. And quite frankly, we're older and slower.
Still, I never thought it would take *this* long to get settled. I'm craving the end of this road so we can just get on to living. Not that we're not living now, obviously...but I mean living with a little routine, a little time to do something other than clean and unpack.
In a sense I got my wish. Though really it's just a postponement. In a move of classic Debi clumsiness, I was carrying a box of stuff that Max had weeded out down the steep, narrowly-treaded staircase, and fell. With a huge amount of pain in my ankle and unable to get the swelling to go down at all, we decided "better safe than sorry" and headed off to an urgi-care center. X-rays confirmed that it really was just a bad sprain, but now I have to stay off it as the doctor put it, "as much as humanly possible for a week and absolutely no stairs." So much for unpacking.
Seriously, I can't even be upset. All I can do anymore is laugh. (Yet still secretly, or not-so-secretly, continue to hope that our luck will indeed turn around one of these days.) I shall make good use of this "mini-vacation" by trying to get a dent in all the reading I need to do for school. And hey, maybe I'll even crochet a little. :)
8 comments:
sometimes it feels like life is nothing more than one trial after another! sheesh.. but some we make worse ourselves. Try to take it easy.. do what the doctor says..and remember, you are on no "time schedule" to get settled! would it make things easier if settled, of course.. but it's not a race..take your time ..take a few deep breaths and read or crochet! there's always "tomorrow". (or the week after lol)
Oh I'm sure you will find lots to do even if you are not mobile!!!! Maybe this is a change in luck but you cannot see it yet. With the week of forced immobility some new insights may come to light, or some jobs will get accomplished that you did not expect or who knows???I am so sorry you have hurt yourself but truly don't only do work while you are sitting down.... take some time for you too, if only fifteen minutes every two hours. Rewarding oneself is good.
Elizabeth
I remember the days when we could move so easily too! Once, Jason and I moved across the country, from Texas to Wisconsin, with only 2.5 weeks to prepare. :O I can't even imagine doing that now.
Ouch on the ankle!! :(
Sorry to hear about your ankle! I hope your luck turns around soon, too! And, really, since you are laid up anyway it is a perfect excuse to join Trish's Pinterest challenge! You deserve a treat. :)
You know, I am not exactly a pack rat, and I don't allow Lorrie to be one, but my books and his obsession with buying tools would take up a U-Haul all its own. This is why my books reside in my mothers basement. We want to move and I am not moving them twice if I don't have to. I just have my 2 shelves here and that suits me fine.
P.S. That's a lot of animals...
Pat,
You're absolutely right. Both about us sometimes making things even harder on ourselves, which I definitely do, and about there being no deadline. Two things I really need to remember. Patience is not one of my finer qualities, and I really need to work on that! :)
Elizabeth,
Can I tell you how very much I wish you had a blog? Perhaps you do??? You just have this wonderful way of making me see things in a different, and I must say, wiser sort of light. Every time I see your name show up in the comments, my heart smiles. :)
Amanda,
Funny the way life just seems to get more complicated, isn't it? :P Though the complications certainly have their rewards, too.
We had to do one of those spur-of-the-moment moves one time, too. Rich got offered a teaching position and we had exactly two weeks to move from Memphis to Cleveland, on the other side of Tennessee. I honestly don't know how we did it--Annie was two, and we had a dog, a cat, and an aquarium (the furry pets making it nearly impossible to find a place to rent), and didn't know a soul in Cleveland. But we managed. Something I know we could *never* pull off today!
Btw, are you guys still hoping to move at some point?
Kelly,
Thanks! And LOL--you truly are quite the enabler, aren't you? :P But I do think I've given up on even trying to resist any longer. :) And yeah, we've got quite an assortment of animal friends, don't we?
I think that someone is trying to tell you something....get off your feet and RELAX a bit. The work will wait--I promise you. But just relax. ;)
Feel better soon....
I'm so sorry about your ankle, Debi! How awful that it's while you are trying to unpack, too. I think reading lots is just the cure, plus lots of looking on Pinterest for ideas for decorating, so while you rest and heal, you can look around you and see how you want to decorate your new house.
I also think that maybe resting will let you see how much you've done too, and how much accomplished this year so far, and see how you are feeling in your new house. You know, an enforced rest phase by the universe isn't always bad - I know this after this last year with my knee, that I didn't know I needed to slow down and see where i was in my life, and it was exactly what I needed to do.
Get well, and I hope your husband brings you home a new book or two to cheer you up and take you away while you heal!
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