We’re Here!

where we live now

Finally! And let’s lead with the positive: one thing I can say about our move is that it was markedly less hideous than the last two.

In May 2006, we joined households. How bad was the ’06 move? So bad that I actually have no memory of  it, but we found a receipt and it took 9 hours, and cost over $1000, and Matthew blanches and sweat starts beading on his brow any time it comes up in conversation. And then, because we had messed up and moved into a mold den instead of a nice and normal place, and even after we tore out the kitchen cabinets the apartment was still hideously rotting and full of insect poop and stinky, we had to do it all again 2 months later. That meant breaking a lease and getting threatened with a lawsuit. And for that move, the movers I’d booked never even showed up, so we had to hire some (even more) random people on the fly.

We were having some problems.

I did have some Cherry Coke right after we closed, since I had forgotten to eat all day, and Cherry Coke was the first thing I ran into that I thought might fix that. (???) But we were still so tired that our collective strategy on the night before the move was — let’s get the living room all ready to go, and then sleep, and we will finish packing while they move that. Well, packing takes longer than moving one room full of stuff, especially if you are racing against a team of professionals, and especially if you run out of tape, bubble wrap, and boxes, as we miraculously managed to do. So when the movers arrived, we were significantly underpacked. It’s not like we hadn’t done a HUGE amount of work in all of the rooms: it’s just that there was a lot left.

But somehow, we finished, and they finished, and we’re here. We were greeting by a bottle of champagne and a lovely heartfelt card from the previous owners, who we loved working with and who we will miss getting to know. (While we moved five blocks from our old place, they moved to Colorado.) We were also greeted by many of the other tenants in the building, with welcoming notes and labels for our door and visits. We also realized that the door to our apartment really actually does not work, and I locked myself in twice in various ways, and that there are some things that will need to happen for this to be wholly our home sweet home. But we’re here! And thus far, its excellent to be here, and though we have unpacking to do, we already know where most of the stuff is supposed to go.

See? I am also ending on the positive.