Adjusting to the Move

 Prior to the move, it’s pretty clear I was bustling with nerves and excitement, promising to take pictures and post updates and make a few laps around the world.

Clearly, that was too ambitious; let’s face it—I’m pooped.

While my dad was away on his ten-day vacation, the rest of us were chipping away at unpacking our own stuff, ordering new furniture to put together and keeping the mess as manageable as possible. For about a week straight, all I did was all that and sleep. Even when the workload started to slow down, there were still orders trickling in and organizing to do. Every box unpacked looking like a messy explosion was a necessity of seeing everything laid out to then make its place more organized.

In my bedroom, there was the bookshelf, the desk and the bed frame. I also water sealed the desk surface and installed those childproof bumpers (which make excellent wrist rests). I used an extender pole for a duster to hang a couple of tapestries on my tallest wall. There’s still a bit of clutter, but I know that over time, I’ll become more efficient with the space and aesthetic. For now, I’m just glad I can move around the space and find what I need. Moving through a maze of boxes was not as fun as it sounds.

I got bookshelves for both Dameon and Marcus. For Marcus, I got a floor rug and a gaming couch, but gave Dameon my recliner and also bought him a shoe rack. Dameon needs some curtain rods put up and they could both use some stuff put up on their walls, but their rooms were easier to set up.

My sister got a vanity, a storage mirror, a TV stand and a dresser. I had cancelled a bed frame for taking too long to ship, but then it turns out it did ship, so my sister and I just put it together anyway so she could use it. Her room is pretty much done at this point too.

Dad has spent the past few days going through his ridiculous hoard of boxes, but he has that mostly sorted through too. He just keeps way too much that neither gets used or displayed so it ends up just taking up space. I wouldn’t say I’m a minimalist but I’m definitely not that much of a pack rat either. I’m usually the person you can ask for a specific tool and there’s a good chance I have one. 

For the past few days, I’ve really slowed down though. Today, all I did was set up a new Ecotank printer. My Canon decided to hang up on a 5200 error after only two years of use. I said fuck it and bought an Epson with a 4 year warranty. Hopefully I get more mileage on this one. It’s agitating how technology just ‘mysteriously’ stops working after a few years. Even though I find good bargains, it’s still irritating to have to replace things. It feels wasteful to go through appliances and devices so fast.

A couple of rainy days are ahead so I’ll take it as more opportunities to relax. I do have some residual soreness from the weeks of constant moving and carrying. The faster I can heal and function better, the sooner I can start to fully utilize all this wonderful potential space.

It’s actually pretty difficult to relax after working so much. I feel a sort of restless need to ride the momentum, despite my protesting body’s opposite response...

I do look forward to focusing on more creative projects. But I also look forward to exploring the new town and working towards other goals, like improving my health. All in good time!

Closed Home, Opened Future!

 So, yes, everything went well for the closing for our new house on Monday! We’ve been rather busy, packing up more boxes, Dad taking stuff over by the carload, more packing and sorting, more loading, rinse, repeat. It’s been an exhausting but exciting process. We’re almost down to just the big furniture which will need a UHaul to finish up. Not yet sure if we’ll get to that before Dad goes on his trip in a little over a week, but I do think we’re at least getting the beds over there and beginning the unpacking process at least. The closets are fully fitted for filling at least. I can also go ahead and order a bed frame and bookshelf sometime soon. If I need any other furniture, I’ll figure that out along the way.

Unfortunately, I’m exhausted so I’ll leave it at that for now. There will be more pictures/posts ahead, but I’m patient with the process. I’m just glad it’s all moving forward!

Big Days Ahead!

 I have a bit of sorting to do with Dameon still. Just going to bag up the clothes we went through that he doesn’t want and then start going through the toys/collectibles today.

Tomorrow is closing day! Dad will do a walk-through to make sure the house is good to go, sign a giant stack of paperwork and get the keys. We won’t start the moving process until he returns from a trip with friends this month, but that’ll give us some time to do all the final packing and be ready to start the big haul.

Dad said he’s been doing some driving through and around our new town and is already drooling about how beautiful it is. I can’t walk for the walks and drives ahead to familiarize myself with all of it. I even went and added some of the local FaceBook groups to my feed, get a better feel for the bad and the good for people there. Apparently, the worst problem I’ve seen is FedEx’s tendency to deliver to the wrong addresses there. Our house's mailbox is actually on the other side of the street, so I’ll be adding some special delivery instructions to deliver it onto my porch whenever possible. The house number is big and clear on the house, but it’s not super close to the road. 

I constantly daydream about what life will be like there, the way I’ll arrange my room and decorate and make it our own. Nothing too fantastical, but I have snippets of our tour and where we drove in and I’ve pored over maps to see which ways I’d like to explore. I’ve always dreamed about an abstract home, somewhere between rural and suburban life, and this will be a surreal reality to come.

Not to say it won’t come without adjustment. Change is always a little scary too. Some of us live our lives afraid to make change and I can’t say I blame anyone for that. Some changes mean you can’t go back to way things were and, when the new situation is worse, it makes it all the more difficult to trust making big changes again.

Yet I remember how difficult it was to hit ‘publish’ on my first book. I drafted and edited and riddled with the cover and proofing, backed up to make adjustments required, learned all of the pitfalls of word processor formatting. I kept meticulous notes so that future efforts would be more streamlined. Yet as the excitement built, that dread crept in.

What if people hate it?

It wasn’t a dread that I cared to let build so I squeezed my eyes shut and clicked. 

The harsher reality is that most people didn’t care to read it or even know it existed. But I moved on. More books, each coming with some new challenges in the ever-changing processes. I didn’t even get my first review until this year, a very in-depth one, but I lapped it up. Feedback is golden, especially in a time where people consume and move on, rarely ever taking the time to interact with those who made the work they take in. I adored the honesty and the criticism and strive for more of it, good bad and ugly, in the future.

I would still like to organize to get some booths at local conventions, but in light of the pandemic, I’m not certain about making too many plans in an unknown future. Events are still being cancelled these days and I don’t want to accumulate any space-hogging racks or displays too far in advance. I’ve kept many suppliers bookmarked, ready to order when it’s time, but in truth, there’s still much work to be done and my muse is playing hooky these days. I know I’ll have to reread my previous two books in the series and comb over my notes to proceed. It’s too easy to forget when nearly a year has passed without drafting it. When you have a brain constantly processing many ideas, you have to be in a place to discipline it once more.

In any case, this moving adventure takes precedence. I’ll likely be straddling living between this house and the new one until the end of the year, fiddling with nesting in a new room and settling in. It may just be the sort of task that has my muse sniffing around in curiosity once more. There are also plenty of crochet and doll projects in process, so there’s really no telling where I’ll go from here.

Truly, it’s not a bad problem to have.