Once Upon a Move

I'm not really sure if I want to re-hash all my feelings about moving. While we were preparing to move I constantly kept asking myself, "How come no one ever writes about moving?" They just say "We moved!" Well, now I know why. I would rather go to the dentist daily for a month than move again. There is no one moment that is more exhausting than another. However, for the sake of consistency, here is a really short version of how our moved went. Let's do it in 5 little chapters, shall we?

Once Upon a Move

Chapter 1: It was a cold, dark stormy winter night. The temperature hovered around 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Lips were chapped all across New Jersey. People had seen more snow than they ever wished to see. We huddled wearing giant sweaters in our little house in NJ. I had totally forgotten what it felt like to not wear a sweater. The windows were all covered with a sheet of ice. We then decided to get off the couch and do something. So we took out one little empty box.

We slowly and methodically started to pack it with our Sunday dishes. Why we were packing was a mystery to us. We had no idea if we were going to move. We had no plans to move. But the harsh cold winter had us sick and we wanted to do something against the forces of nature.

Chapter 2: Our spring consisted of selling. Suddenly we noticed lots of stuff we didn't need and decided to sell it! Sell on Ebay! Sell on Craigslist! We (I) sold our stuff and our little Paypal balance grew. New adjectives I never used turned junk into very sellable "Vintage Italian wine barrel" and "Beautiful antique solid oak bookcase". Gorilla glue and a little polish made our junk pretty and lucrative.

Chapter 3: The BBQ. The first beautiful day in April was ruined by our neighbors cranking on their BBQ and burning their food. Our house was filled with smoke. In that moment of coughing through the haze I decided it was time to move. I still didn't know where or how or when but I was moving! Out came  a few boxes and in when all of the kitchen items I loved but didn't need daily. In went a  spare blanket to cover them, in went the cat, out came the cat, in went the cat, out came the cat. Finally the box was full and we closed it. We labeled it #2. Soon after came #3, #4 and #5.

Chapter 4: Hunt for a home. This chapter is something very Dr. Seussian. We packed our bags to look for a home and literally traveled the world.

Will this be where I stroll?

Are you my new water heater?

Are you my new bathroom?

Will this be my new church?

Can I just live here?

Going up in the hills.

Will I get a library card here?

Contemplating the uncertainty.

 We went to five places in the EU looking here, looking there. Up in the mountains, down in the valleys, into the swamplands. He interviewed. I went to check out grocery stores, hospitals, places to live. We then traveled to the swamplands of Florida and took a boat ride among alligators. We were invited to Montreal but decided not to go because if NJ winters were tough can you imagine Montreal winters? We went to DC. We came home to NJ and pet our perplexed cats. We rung our hands, tore our cloaks, and beat our breasts screaming to the sky "WHERE SHALL WE GO?!!! What is to become of us?!!!" Well, it didn't really come to that but at times that is how I felt.

Chapter 5. We left. Oh, if it had only been that easy. After packing for months it *seemed* as if we were finished but lo and behold there were still things left to pack and pack and pack and pack. I laugh at myself for ever having considered myself a minimalist. What a fool I was. Ahhhh....it feels good sometimes to realize my own idiocy.

"Food Lady, you have too much stuff!"

Cat toy

Must take pasta pot.

Don't forget family portrait

Moving supplies

Our road got paved the hour. THE HOUR. that our moving truck came.

How does a road remain badly paved for years then suddenly the day, the hour we move it gets paved? It must have been a joke from above. 

Art

Boxes full of our stuff containing I don't know what in a moving truck that moved us

Off we go!

 Anyway, we left. The date was set, the new home and job came up about a month before we left. Two weeks before leaving we were still contemplating Italy or the US. But the US turned out to catch us before Italy did. I got the flu. I got a fever. I felt like I was dying the week before to move. Ten pounds were lost. The Chef became Superman with a Napolitan twist. I don't think Superman sang. He alternated medicating me, bringing me food, singing Napolitan songs, cursing at a cat between his feet and packing our furniture. He danced around the house with medicine in one hand and packing tape in the other belting out songs like Pavarotti. I got out of bed shaken and weak and put on my now baggy clothes and moved. We got to our new house and then I went back to NJ to work for one more week. My work made me feel grounded. The library hadn't changed. My colleagues were calm and the same. The bakery was still cranking out the best bread in town. I worked one more week.

The next blog will be on my drive down to our new home.