Déménagement sans cesse

Tomorrow begins the final countdown.  We'll officially be moving into our new apartment on Sunday, the 4th of September.  Before that, partner has a half day of med school Friday, which I assume is orientation and scaring the crap out of students to make sure they take this seriously.  Tomorrow we'll be renting a truck to move the last of our stuff in, and on Friday we'll take the things that we're too scared to casually put in the back of a moving van.  Saturday will be our one day of solitude before the final push on Sunday to make sure everything's taken care of.

I spent today intermittently getting my hourly hit of email, bit of a net addict, I admit, and bagging up what we have left.  All of our clothes that we have in this country fit into a single box.  The largest is our blue IKEA sack full of video games.  Believe me, it's entirely indispensable.  I still have the game consoles to pack up, but they won't be leaving until Friday, so I've got a day on that.  If it really comes down to it, I can pack them up tonight.  I already packed up the monitor and keyboard for our desktop because we're taking the desk tomorrow.

As I was putting stuff in boxes, I realized that this is my fourth move in 2 years, and moreover eleventh move since 2002.  Now since some of those were between college and home when I lived in the dorms, we may have to remove 3 or 4 of those, but still I think 6 moves is still pretty impressive.  I also should mention I'm one of those people who loves chaos.  I have seriously just thought about throwing on a backpack and disappearing sometimes (which is still more reasonable, I think, than my brother's "move to China and become a Shao-lin monk" idea.) but I always had something to hold me back from doing it; college, family, friends, debt.  I guess maybe I should just take it as a sign to enjoy manageable chaos, and leave the real stuff to the experts.

If it were just boxes and sacks, that would be one thing.  I have learned to hate moving furniture ever since the enormous dresser fiasco of 2004.  Admittedly, the first moves were nothing, because I had no furniture.  Even when I moved in with partner, I was over at his place constantly anyway, I still didn't have to worry about furniture.  However; my partner is not like me.  He needs to be comfortable.  He can't sleep on a couch or a mattress on the floor.  He needs a bed.  The truth is, he's spoiled me!  The first time we moved into the place that we chose together was the first time I ever had to rent a truck.  We got everything in and it went pretty quick.  I was never happier to be done though.  When we moved back with my parents before the move abroad, we had so much that we had to leave some stuff behind.

I like to take moving time to simplify my needs.  That's a fancy way of saying not having to schlep six boxes of Dark Shadows cassettes across multiple time zones.  There are always exceptions, though.  We have an entire messenger bag full of cords, connectors, and adapters.  Since moving to Europe, we've had to by a fleet of connectors and adapters.  The bigger problem I have though is the crippling inability to get rid of cables and connectors, especially the ones that we don't even have any use for, but you never know when you might need it.  I blame my father for this instinct.

Should something ever happen and I have to move back to the US alone, don't be surprised if you see pictures of my apartment online, and I have a beautiful matching set of milk crate with cushion chairs, bookshelves from the design house of Plank and Cinder Block, and a desk made from two sawhorses and a car windshield.  However, if I can get FiOS, you know I will!

All right, it was a nice break.  Now back to packing....