EYEHEARTZOMBIES

First off, obviously I’m back. I wrote this a few days ago before I got everything set back up. Enjoy the numbing details.

I’ve been walking around the condo for a couple of days with a knife in my hand, cutting things. No blood yet, no injuries. The move was successful and we now just have seemingly millions of boxes to open and things to put…somewhere. This place is bigger than we remembered, but still not as big as our house was. Still, it’s a good size and it forced us to pare down, which we needed to do anyway. I can’t say that I’m exactly thrilled at the prospect of opening all these boxes, though.

Thursday night, after my post, found us running around the house shoving things into boxes. The rrrriippp of packing tape filled the air and we were both about 2 feet away from having a nervous breakdown. Finally, at around 3 or 4 in the morning I convinced Elaine to come to bed with me and we’d take care of the rest after we woke up and the movers were here. That’s when it first started to go downhill.

As you’ve probably read on here before, if I don’t get enough sleep (and especially when I don’t get enough sleep while under intense pressure) I get sick. Violently sick. Well, come 6 am Friday morning, there I was, hugging the toilet. I managed to hold my stomach together long enough to ask Elaine to call my parents and see if they’d come help us with the final packing and moving. They’re wonderful, amazing people, so they said they would.

Elaine started packing stuff again shortly after the phone call. I don’t know how much she got done in that hour and a half or so, but I’m sure it was plenty. I proceeded to drift in and out of sleep and sickness. At 8, she left to meet the moving van. I’ll post a picture of it soon. The moving guys showed up, the two drivers and four volunteers, and proceeded to pack our house of two years into an 18-wheeler moving van. They filled it up. We were the only house in it (found out later from them that some people need two, three, even four vans. Good Lord!). After awhile I started feeling a bit better and did my best to help get stuff ready for them to pack, and to check and make sure nothing was left behind that we needed them to be sure and take. At 9:30, they pulled away. The entire house took only an hour and a half.

About 20 or 30 minutes after that, my parents arrived. The exertion of helping the movers had put me flat on my back again, so I slept for an hour or so. Elaine did, too, after a few minutes of helping my parents get things started. They did a box run, then started filling cardboard containers with the rest of our stuff. Elaine and I both got up feeling better around 11 or 11:30 and tried to help my parents some more. Elaine did more than I did, definitely, but I did my part. She needed to be gone by 2 pm to get to the realtor’s in time to pick up the house key and lease. The cars were being packed, but there was no way she’d be ready by then.

A phone call told us that the realtor was going to be leaving even earlier than we thought, so she arranged to leave a key for Elaine behind some mailbox or something. An hour or so later, Elaine and the furry pets drove away, leaving me and my parents to finish with the house.

Most of the packing was done by this time. Just some final stuff shoved into boxes, some cleaning, and a bit of stuff stuck into the back hallway for Elaine’s mom to pick up that evening. Yes, even with an 18-wheeler and 3 cars we couldn’t fit all of our stuff. Her mom is as awesome as my parents and came and picked up that stuff that night. If it wasn’t for our parents we would have never made this move as well as we did. They saved us in many, many ways.

A few more things shoved into the cars, a few more checks of the house to make sure everything was there, and the next thing I know we’re at the landlord’s dropping off the keys. I tell ‘em that Elaine’s mom is going to be by later to pick up some things, that I had hidden a key for her, and they were all “OK” and we left.

After a 3 hour drive, I guide my parents through the twisty-turny back roads to the new condo. The city we live in apparently has no blocks and no corners, just winding streets with similar names and no street lights. I get them here with no problems. John, Elaine’s brother, and his friend Brian were here. They helped us unload and we all kind of stood around, marveling at the fact that we’d just moved so much in three cars. Everyone leaves and Elaine and I, after eating a bit of dinner, head to bed.

Eight o’clock the next morning comes way too quickly. We make it, though, and meet the truck to show them were the house is. After a quick stop at the storage place the movers are here at the condo, their giant truck somehow making these narrow curves with no guardrails, moving the rest of our stuff into the new place. Again, it only takes an hour and a half. I redeem my sickness the day before by carrying in as much stuff as I can.

After the movers are finished (only one thing broken, the glass top to our light table) my parents arrive from the hotel they stayed in for the evening. The movers pull away and we all go in to start arranging things. The sight of 4 foot high stacks of boxes, a disassembled bed and futon, and hundreds of other little things make us all weary, but we managed to get into the midst of it.

A few hours later we went out for some lunch. A very ornate Chinese restaurant in a nearby city. A little expensive, but not horribly priced and the food was good. They had nifty little plastic cups of ice cream. I haven’t really had ice cream in a long time, so it was a really nice change.

After that it was back to the house to keep unpacking and building furniture. My dad and I got all of the entertainment center and bookcases set up, and the electronics as well. We built the bed and the futon, the patio set and moved a lot of stuff into the little storage shed. Elaine and my mom kept working on the kitchen and when they finished my mom started unpacking movies (apparently I have a lot of “booger” movies) while Elaine tackled the closets. Once again, we have a lot of stuff.

Once most of the box moving was finished, Elaine ran to the store for some provisions for the night. My parents and I took Poly for a walk around the complex and met another neighbor. He lives a couple of places down and his name is Bob. He seemed pretty nice. So far everyone we’ve met has been really nice. One of the benefits of living in a mostly retirement community, I guess.

John came over again for dinner and we grilled out. First time this year and it was really nice. The wind picked up again so it got a bit chilly, but it wasn’t horrible. And nothing comes close to Hebert’s steaks. After dinner everyone left and Elaine and I finally got to sleep in our bed in our house. We slept the sleep of the dead.