And we're off!

We're one step closer to Seattle. The Providence apartment is officially history, our stuff is en route to Washington, my hubs is on his way to Missouri, and I'm spending the month with a friend in Boston. Now all that's left to do in this move is work all month long, save all my money, and drive out to Seattle in January. (And then find jobs and an apartment, but first things first.)

My new quarters are a bit sparse. I'm sleeping on an air mattress, using borrowed sheets, sitting on a folding camp chair, and stacking a few books on the floor. My kitchen remnants are here; whatever I don't use in the next month will revert to my friend when I leave. I'll be working all the time--December is an exceptionally lucrative month for those in the food industry--so I won't be cooking very much that's exciting. Lots of soup, pasta, beans, oatmeal, eggs. You know, the usual.

It's been a physically grueling week, and the prospect of spending five weeks apart from my husband during the holidays is not especially appealing. But for now, I'm going to fix a big batch of oatmeal, drink some more tea, and enjoy not having to think about packing.

It's done!

We are officially completely packed and loaded. I am officially exhausted and sore.

Long story short, we managed to completely fill our one 6 x 7 x 8' cube. We did have to jettison some things I'd hope to fit: the microwave, the vacuum, and most alarmingly, my grandmother's antique mahogany dining room chairs. It was a grueling two days of carrying boxes down twisty stairways, setting them down outside, and then rearranging all the already-loaded boxes for maximum space efficiency. The snow and rain yesterday didn't help any.

UPack will collect our cube today, and it will magically reappear at our (currently unknown) doorstep in Seattle, roughly two months from now. Tomorrow we'll meet the landlord, turn over the keys, and start the next chapter of this saga.

It's very disconcerting living in an empty apartment. We're sleeping on an air mattress, sitting on the floor, and watching movies on our laptops. We went to a last dinner at Cook & Brown, where I used to work, and spent the evening nibbling and drinking. It was our last night together until January.

The loading begins!

 The loading begins today!

Once our UPack container arrives, we'll begin the process of the physical move--loading it with all our packed boxes and what little furniture remains. Then UPack will take it away again and transport it to Seattle. I'll take a few belongings on to my friend's apartment in Boston, my hubs will fly out to the Midwest, and we'll begin the process of waiting out the holidays. I'll work my butt off, make lots of money, and we'll start driving to Seattle after the New Year.

Oh, and I'm working all this week, so the next few days will be particularly hectic. I'll keep everyone posted!

Thanksgiving recap

It was a low-key holiday for us. I got to see all my siblings and their kids, and spend some quality time relaxing in the countryside. Enforced relaxation--my parents have no internet, no cell phone reception, and no cable. Not even a daily newspaper.

"Thanksgiving dinner" was really just dinner. There was no turkey, no stuffing. We had venison loin, rolls, cranberry sauce, and other things, but it wasn't a big deal. We deposited a bunch of stuff in my parents' garage for long-term storage, gave them custody of the cats for the holidays, and spent our time hanging out with all the kids.

Who were loud. I don't know why a full military is required anymore; if you rounded up all the nation's two-year-olds and set them loose on the enemy, they would spew a trail of destruction greater than any war machine. And deafen everyone in the process. Don't get me wrong, my nieces and nephew are the cutest kids ever. But my goodness, when the three of them are all fussy at once, I wanted to hide under the bed along with my cats.

Still, it was good to see everyone. I won't see my sister and her family again for a while. I drank an entire bottle of extremely delicious Grand Cru burgundy, all by myself. I slept at least 8 (and sometimes 10) hours a night. I ate a lot of homecooked food.

Now we start the packing; by this time next week, all our stuff will be in transit and my hubs will be in the Midwest with his family. This is the calm before the storm.

Packing is done!

Oh my goodness, has it been a week since my last post? I'm so boring these days.

But I managed to finish packing. So we're packed. I finally replaced my POS laptop (goodbye, 2006 technology!) with a brand-new POS. I've spent the last couple of days getting the new one situated, transferring files, etc. Transferring a 20,000-song iTunes library is a giant pain in the ass, by the way. We took a moment to see the new James Bond movie, courtesy of a birthday Fandango gift card.

So now that we're packed, it's just dealing with moving administrivia, and prepping to spend Thanksgiving with the fam in Virginia. It'll be my only holiday celebration this year, since I'll be working all through Christmas and New Year's.

I'm starting to get a wee bit excited about moving, now that the packing is done. Once our stuff is away, I suspect I'll be even more excited. We all know how much I love cross-country driving; visions of the Rockies, Utah, and long open highways are dancing in my head.

Birthday!

I had a good birthday. (Especially good when you consider that last year, I worked a double on my birthday. And got fired.) 37 is not an important birthday, but it's my first that made me want to cringe.

Nevertheless, it was well spent. Hubs and I attended a wine class with my coworkers, and we drank a crap-ton of delicious Loire Valley whites. Then we had dinner at Eastern Standard, where we consumed a magnum of bubbly, two excellent bottles of red, a bottle of Lambrusco, and after-dinner drinks. (I also ate many delectable Wellfleet oysters, fried sweetbreads, a charcuterie plate, a bowl of mussels, and a butterscotch bread pudding.) The management showered us with free stuff, since we were all industry, and good times were had by all.

The next day I paid for it, with a fiercesome hangover. Voting was a shitshow--I've never been part of such a shoddily organized, shoddily run voting system. Up yours, Rhode Island. No wonder we're so anxious to get out of here. It took us two hours, but we finally managed to vote. Being both hungover and frustrated as hell from that, we got into a wicked fight later that night, even as we were vastly relieved at the voting outcome.

Then, of course, the very next day, New England got hammered with a nor'easter. I had to drive home through a snowstorm--a snowstorm! In early November!--which left us with three inches of snow and 50-mph wind gusts. My 55-minute commute stretched to an hour and forty minutes; the interstates were mostly clear, but I didn't go above 50 mph, for fear of hitting black ice.

So the high point was my birthday. The rest of the week since then has been kind of a wash. But we're getting closer to being fully packed, and at least my Facebook feed is no longer full of political commentary.

Packing

Happy belated Halloween, everyone. I worked, and packed. I hope everyone rode out the storm okay--we didn't have any damage, and managed to keep our power on the whole time.

I'm just heartsick about the pictures coming out of NYC, though. I think all my friends are okay, but NYC was the first (and only, really) city I ever loved. And my home for ten years. I was thinking about going into the city for a day next week for my birthday, but I think I'll put that idea on hold for a couple of weeks. Driving an hour each way to work every day is a serious pain in the ass, but the transit system in New York is in a clusterfuck of epic proportions. I'm glad I'm not dealing with that right now. My heart goes out to those of you who are.

We've been packing, and selling things we're not taking, and packing some more. I may be able to get everyone into the one shipping container, but I'll have to jettison some things and do some creative packing. I think I'll visit my folks in Virginia for Thanksgiving, and take them a load of stuff to store for me.

In the meantime, more of the same. Packing, eating up what's left in the pantry, selling things on craigslist. Rinse and repeat.