"So, how's packing coming along?" Other variations of this questions include, "Are you all packed yet?" and, my favorite, "Did you already pack the weapons of mass destruction?" Actually, no one has asked me that final question, but my answer would of course be, Dude, those get packed LAST along with the toothbrushes and beef jerkey.
I think it is fair to say that no one really cares how packing is coming along and if you are all packed yet. Just like no one really cares if your six month-old is eating solids yet. But what else is there to ask? What other riveting things does a six month-old do? There are no other conversation starters about a wee baby that do not end with a simple yes or a no. Has he found his toes? Yes. Does she enjoy her tubbies? No. See? At least the question about solids invites a whole produce aisle of possibilities. Excitement!
But I will answer the forced question of how packing is coming along. I would say that we are about 40% packed. We don't have a lot. I've been organizing and purging for months. It's just carving out the time when two rhesus monkeys aren't commandeering me as a jungle gym. Packing entails permanent marker and there is nothing rhesus monkeys like more than for giving themselves temp tattoos with blue Sharpies. And after tending to primates all day, who has energy to pack? I ask you.
Mostly how I've been spending my time is the same way I always spend my time: not cleaning my home, frantically cleaning my home because someone is coming, building couch forts for rhesus monkeys, reading Fancy Nancy books, cooking vegetarian, sucking air at Baby Boot Camp, and trying not to get caught naked post-shower by the sneaky contractor who comes like the wind (who has been working on the ceiling of our basement). Ahhh!
Anyway, we're doing okay. Packing-wise and emotional-wise, we're pretty all right. I think this move would be a whole lot worse This move would totally be craptrocious if it was under duress and if it wasn't our choice. Moves are so much nicer when you've got time to pack and think and say proper good-byes and go to J.P. Licks every day just so you have the sense memory of Coffee Oreo locked and loaded.
I realize in this respect that I've been profoundly lucky, ya know? I've chosen all the moves I've made in life.
Here's my resume:
1. 1980 - Mother's womb --> Outside World: I totally chose when to evacuate. It was getting crowded up in there.
2. 1986 - House in Cleveland suburb -->Bigger House in Other Cleveland Suburb: There was a basement the size of a McDonald's and that was putting the groovy in my smoothie.
3. 1998 - House of Girlhood --> Spacious Dorm with Malibu Barbie Roommate: I didn't get to choose the roommate but we got along famously, and I did choose the wellness floor because SURELY EVERYONE would abide by the substance-free rules ALL YEAR and we would just eat carrot sticks and do yoga in the study lounge for periodic study breaks.
4. 1999 --> Best RA Room Ever: Got my first choice on the best floor with the bestest RD. That was one of the best choices I ever made.
5. Fall 2000 --> 2nd Best RA Room Ever: The room smelled like cabbage all the time but the floor and my co-RA were amazing. As was my RD.
5. Spring 2000 --> Swish Apartment in DC: Happiest semester in all of college as an intern.
6. 2001 --> Palacial RD Suite: I could do, like, eleven cartwheels in a row in that room and not hit a wall. Plus! My own bathroom
7. 2002 --> Lovely apartment with wainscotting and Anglophile roommates.
8. 2005 --> Lovenest with Newly Minted Hub
9. 2007 --> Our first home where we owned the walls
10. 2011 - Woah. Tennesizzle will be my tenth living space.
What about you? What's your living space resume like?
