The Joys of moving

If you've ever had to move anywhere, you know there is nothing joyful about it. It took 3 professional packers just under 7 hours to wrap, package, tag and inventory the entire contents of our life. Once they finished, I wandered the rooms of our house now filled high with boxes and stared at the empty walls, reminiscing about the life we had there. Dayven wasn't quite as wistful as me. He said looking at all the boxes just made him exhausted because he knew we'd have to unpack them all once we get to our new house. Another bummer of moving. Especially when you realize that the organized system they use for packing isn't really terribly organized. I was thinking about this as I perused some of the boxes, like the ones picture here. I didn't even realize we owned an "art tree" and why is it packed with a fold up chair and Xmas paper? That will be an interesting box to open. Does it really make sense to pack the hard hat and boots with the couch pillows? Why does every box say "Misc" or "etc." on it? It's a bit difficult to watch someone manhandling your prized posessions and hoping desperately that everything will make the trip in one piece. Yes, moving really stinks. To top it off, someone dropped a B-O-M-B in the upstairs bathroom, but I'll spare you the details on that.

The following day, we woke to the sound of rain. Not just droplets, but a torrential downpour. We've been desperate for rain, but it was the worst possible day for Mother Nature to finally grant our wish. The moving truck didn't arrive until 10:30am because of some crisis at the warehouse and instead of the 4 movers that were promised, only 3 showed up and one was injured. Not good. We knew we were in for a long day. They worked diligently and we plied them with donuts and Cat hats to keep the good mojo flowing, but with the injured worker and trying to load in between the intermittent bursts of rain, it was slow going. In the end, Dayven helped them move just to get things rolling faster.

Wyatt and I finally decided to get a jump start on the long drive and have Dayven catch up with us once the truck finished loading. Good thing we did because the truck didn't leave our house until after 10pm that night. We loaded the family truckster and hit the road. My eyes welled with tears before I could even pull out of the driveway. I drove very slowly out of the neighborhood and down the flagstone-lined street so I could take it all in, one last time. We cruised down the highway with the sunroof open and "Dixieland Delight" on the radio, as we passed the Nashville skyline. I was feeling pretty sad to be leaving a place I love so much, where so many wonderful memories were made.

We haven't yet made it quite as far north as you might think. We're taking a little detour through Peoria while we're waiting for some logistics to be worked out. It's a nice chance to catch up with family and friends and visit a few of my old haunts. All of our belongings are still in Nashville in a storage facility waiting to take the next leg of the journey. Stay tuned...