Category Archives: moving

That Which Doesn’t Kill You Still Hurts Like Hell

May 17, 2011

They say “whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”  Well I’d like to punch “They” in the face.  Of course moving during my mom’s surgery with my sweet son’s 11th birthday all within a week of each other won’t kill me but I really don’t need to be any stronger.   After the past year, I could squash He-Man like a bug.

I look back at the wedding and our house hunting and laugh in the face of what I used to call stress.

My mom, my best friend, my confidant, my daily 2pm call, my rock is having open heart surgery the day after tomorrow.

I’m scared.

We’re all scared.

She is the oak tree of this family.  The big tree that we all dangle from.  We need her.  And we need her to be well.

She is a mighty woman.  I have gotten all my strength from her.  But still, I’m scared.  We’re all scared.  And PLEASE don’t tell me “everything will be OK” because you don’t know that and in this case, it doesn’t help.  Instead just pray/think/light a candle/dance whatever you do – and do it on Thursday morning at 8 am.

In the middle of all of this we are moving.  The movers come on Saturday morning at 8am (what the HELL is with everything happening at 8 am?! I curse you EIGHT AY EM!) and we are not even on the map of being ready.  Unless movers like to come into a home with boxes half full and piles everywhere.  I have lost track of what’s trash, what’s being given away and what I’m fruitlessly trying to sell on Craigslist.  The place where we are sleeping, which is no longer home, is beyond depressing.

Our real home is being painted and looks amazing.  However it’s taking longer than expected which means dollar signs that don’t exactly fit into the budget.  We’ll make it work.  We have no choice.

And through all of this life goes on.  Orthodontist appointments, soccer games, baseball practice… life.

My neck is once again concrete, I am breaking out like a 13 year old girl and at night my body craves the release from reality so it passes out cold.

I’ll get through this.  We all will.  It won’t kill us.  But I won’t feel stronger at the end of it, either.  I’ll feel relived, exhausted and grateful.

Until then I’m just working on getting through this hour.  Just sixty minutes without throwing in the towel or having a temper tantrum taken out on the freezer (which may happened to a “friend” of mine).  All the while dancing and doing Jazz hands for my son that everything will be awesome for his birthday even though Grandma will miss it for the first time, ever.

So dear friends, although I’m not a fan of organized religion, I believe strongly in the power of positive energy, healing thoughts and the power of this here blog.  If you could muster some of those prayers for my dear mom on Thursday, I’d appreciate it.

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hope, life, moving, My mom

Pack ‘em Up and Move ‘em Out!

May 12, 2011

In less than 24 hours, Matt and I will be homeowners.  Which is awesome and completely panic evoking.
We went to the final walk through last night with, “YAY!  This is so exciting!  Our own house. Parties! Puppies! Pansies!  Oh my!” and left with “Holy shit that’s a lot of work…”

Regardless of the work we are thrilled to be moving, if only for the fact that our apartment currently looks like Delta Chi after Homecoming.  If I find a passed out sorority girl under a pile of dirty clothes, I’ll give her a glass of water and fare for a cab ride home.

It’s so bad that I was going to take cutelookwearemovingthehouseisamess pictures but realized if they got into the wrong hands social services would be at my door faster than news of Bin Laden’s death hit Twitter.

When I moved the last time, I had to pack so fast I didn’t really go through anything.  This time, I don’t want any junk (or bad juju) in my pretty-new-the-yard-is-a-mess-and-wow-we-didn’t-notice-that-before house.  This translates into going through EVERYTHING!

Baskets of clothes, drawers, closets, Tupperware bins.  It’s painful and therefore I do A LOT of whining, complaining, and procrastination.

One of these said drawers is in a big entertainment unit.  I’ve had this piece for almost 11 years now and have NEVER gone through this drawer.  Things have gone in but nothing comes out.  Until now!  It was time to finally go through it all and clean it out.  Out with the old life, in with the new.  That and Matt said “Seriously Honey… what’s in there?”

Excellent question.

Answer: birthday, Christmas, Valentine, Mother’s Day, Thinking of You, Get Well Soon, baby shower, Thank you, and any other Hallmark occasion greeting card I received from 1998 – 2011.  If you sent me a card during this time, I want you to know I have kept your sincere notes for a decade, and now you’re in the trash.  Oh and whoever “Mary” was, that card was so funny!

Also in this magically, freakishly large, clown car drawer, were 1,502 Uno cards, 890 playing cards, owners manual to a VCR, ex-boyfriend bank statements, 3 pairs of dice, a butane refill (I have never smoked or lived with anyone that did. But good thing I had that in there for 10 years), candles, 3,401 pictures (many of ex boyfriends and ex dogs) and a small man named Bill.

I’ll admit it took me two days to go through this beast.  I suppose if one were more mature and had less, “Seriously this is awful, can’t I stop? I have to check Facebook and now I’m hungry” it would have taken an hour.

But it’s done.  My bad juju past is gone, sweet cards from Ben, my parents and my current partner have remained.  Now I can’t wait to start filling that black hole of furniture with more treasures for Ben to go through in 2062.

So dear readers, we come to yet another lack of blogging excuse.  If you don’t hear from me by June, look under a pile of boxes.

Oh and p.s., if you ever find me buying another black v-neck sweater, pajama bottoms or socks, you personally have my permission to punch me in the left boob.

The right boob is reserved for Bath and Body Works lotion.  Currently I could moisturize the entire state of Wisconsin.  And we’d all smell like Japanese Cherry Blossom.

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apartment living, changes, moving

Moved

January 19, 2009

Hello from the other side!

Holy Mother of Everything Good and Great…. it’s done!

My parents (who were a ridiculously huge help.  Thank you again, Folks!) and I survived.  Barely but we did. 
Friends, let my pain be a lesson to you.  If you can at all help it, do not move in the dead of winter. 

I repeat for those that are slow:

DO. NOT. MOVE. IN. THE. WINTER!

With that being said, it did go fairly well.

The most nerve wrecking part was the move out.  The movers, (Two Men and a Truck who did an amazing job!) couldn’t park on the street outside my old apartment because of all the snowbanks.  So their only choice was to jimmy into a spot between two other apartment buildings.  That would have been no problem if the landlord of those buildings wasn’t a complete arsehole.  He was the kind of guy that if you parked for a second in one of his spots, he would appear out of nowhere like some phantom, to yell at you.  He once even did this to my FATHER!  Everyone loves my dad.  Yeah, he’s that scary. 

Therefore I was literally biting my nails with worry, and pacing in front of the window that he was going to come out and tell us to move.  Not to mention we were blocking in two cars.   Since there was literally no other spot for the truck to park, I was a wreck.   My mother, bless her heart, came armed with a pocket full of cash to bribe anyone who got in our way.

Luckily, all the stars were all aligned and Mean Landlord Man never appeared.  Even the people who’s cars we were blocking in must have had no where to go on a snowy Saturday morning because they didn’t even pop their heads out to see what was going on.

Normally I drag out this moving process because it’s so painful.  But this time, with the very tight schedule, I couldn’t.  It all had to be done in one weekend. 

At one point yesterday, when I was resembling a homeless lady (complete with the mismatched socks and greasy matted hair) and was a sheer puddle of my former self, my mom had to do the Moonstruck, “SNAP OUT OF IT!  We are getting this done today!” shake on me. 

And I’m so glad she did because between her and my friend Darcy coming over to help clean, it’s all done.  

It was painful. 

It was ugly. 

There was many a mood swing and subsequent losing of one’s shit (note to parents: if you are moving, it’s a good idea to have your kid with when moving into the new place.  Having him at a play date the ENTIRE day?  Not smart.  The child will come home to have a complete meltdown as he sees his new “home” piled with boxes and his new “room” in shambles.  Lesson learned for me…)

But again, I repeat, it’s done.

As I was unpacking today, I realized that I’m not the only one that moved this week.  My new BFF’s Barack and Michelle are moving into their fabulous new home too.    I wonder if they want to go to coffee and talk about the perils of moving?

So much new!  New year, new house and a new wonderful President.

Much to celebrate!  Much to toast to!

But first I have to find those wine glasses, which are in one of these boxes somewhere…

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Becky has lost her mind, Ben, moving, my dad, My mom, obama

Out With The Old, In With The Cold

January 15, 2009

Did you know I’m moving? 

I know I barely talk about it.  It’s not like every single Facebook status for the past week has been me bitching about packing and moving.  I’m so subtle.  I hate to complain.  So it’s easy to forget that I’m moving. 

But I am!

For some reason, when I moved into my current place I decided to not throw away anything.  I think I even have used Kleenex from 2001.

This time, even though I only had days to get my whole place packed up, I went through EVERYTHING and if it hasn’t been touched in a year, see ya!

Poor Ben.  I’m constantly asking him, “Do you need this?  You haven’t used this in months!”

“Mom!  It’s a beach towel and my swimsuit.  Are you crazy?  Pack it!  Don’t throw it away!”

“And this?  What is this!?  We don’t need THIS!”

“Ah Mom, isn’t that my baby book?”

Don’t worry, baby books haven’t been thrown but pretty much everything else has. 

I gave six (yes SIX!) of those huge lawn trash bags full of clothes to the Salvation Army. 

I went through every basket, every drawer, every Tupperware bin. 

One basket of crap that had letters from 2004 addressed to Ben from my uncle that weren’t even opened.  Oops.  
And then there were birthday cards from my ex-boyfriend’s parents to Ben and I.  Ouch.  No need for those anymore.

I think my favorite find was emails between a boyfriend and I from ten years ago.  I not only printed them out, but have kept moving them for the past decade.  Hold on to much Beck?   Yep, even those have now been torn up (into micro-nano pieces) and thrown away.

It feels so great to purge all this stuff.   So freeing.  So light.

I just hope I’m able to find Ben’s sandals and goggles come June.

And now my last hurdle is to channel my inner Eskimo and get through this move in these Arctic temperatures. 

Seriously the forecast for this weekend is:
FRIDAY:
***WIND CHILL WARNING UNTIL NOON***
Partly sunny, becoming breezy, and bitterly cold (becoming mostly cloudy with light snow developing late at night).
High: 4
Wind: SW increasing to 10-20 MPH; Wind Chills: -20 to -40 in the morning.

SATURDAY:
Mostly cloudy and not as cold with light snow tapering to flurries; minor snow accumulation of 1-3″ is possible.
Low: 2; temperatures steady/slowly rising into the teens by morning
High: 23; Wind Chills: -5 to -15 in the morning

These temps aren’t just “Baby it’s cold outside.” 
These are “You are on the surface of Pluto so don’t stand outside with skin exposed for more than 2 minutes, or it will turn black and fall off.”

Ah yes.  Good times.   There is the biggest cup of spiked hot chocolate in my near future…

Wish me luck people.  See you on the other side.

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Becky's Craziness, Ben, moving, winter
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