Whew

The big lift is over. Saturday sucked—hard. But all of my stuff is now in Todd’s apartment (our apartment now, really) and some of it has even been put away. Moving is always worse than I predict; somehow I talk myself into imagining that I’ll be able to find what I need when I need it in order to put things away in an orderly fashion. Obviously, that never, ever works. Why I keep thinking it will is anyone’s guess.

Worse, though, were my movers. Everyone, please tell any and all moving friends: Ben Hur Movers SUCK. Don’t use them! They essentially held my belongings hostage. Halfway through the move (i.e., when my stuff was in their truck), they said the price was different than the quote and they weren’t unloading anything until I paid. I really had no idea what to do and ended up calling Todd back from the park where he’d taken the kids. He dealt with them because I was too furious to able to. In the end we paid the money; it was that or say buh-buy to everything I own. I cannot believe that companies operate this way.

While moving is always painful and I got totally ripped off, there are some positive things to report about the experience, too. Todd was amazing, coming to my aid as soon as I needed him. He also worked like a champ helping me unpack and getting all the boxes out as we emptied them, a task that I hate far beyond what is reasonable. Dylan and Sofia were also amazing. Moving is no fun for adults who can rationalize why it’s necessary, so I can only imagine how awful it is for kids. They were really good, though, helping for some of the time and entertaining themselves admirably the rest of the time. Very impressive. And, finally, my mom came into the city for the day to help me move again. This is the third move in a row that she’s helped with, and I am so appreciative! It’s so generous of her to travel a couple of hours out of her way to spend the day with a grouchy, no-fun daughter who asks her to unpack box after box.

The apartment is probably 80% of the way to looking normal again at this point. The kitchen still needs a lot of work, and my closet is a hot mess. I threw so much in there just to get it out of the way that I need to spend some time organizing it now. The biggest improvement will come when we get a bunch of stuff into storage. We both have several boxes, big suitcases, etc. to store and they’re making the apartment feel temporarily more crowded.

All the sturm und drang is worth it, though. I love living with Todd.