Moving: The Aftermath

I really can’t believe my marriage has survived this.

Actually, I can. I’m being dramatic. But I’ve had moments that I wanted to pay for a second apartment so I could have one on my own.

I loathe, just like most people, moving. LOATHEEEEE.

There really aren’t words strong enough for how much I hate it.

Probably also comes from my moving back and forth between houses every week when I was younger.

AND YOU GUYS. How in the world do two young people have so much crap?!?!

I mean, we’ve lived in college dorms and college apartments. We still live in a college town in apartments that aren’t that big, yet we probably have enough things to fill a small house.

Luckily, we weren’t moving very far, so it was a little easier on me since I had to do it on my own. Even better, my MIL lent me her SUV to use instead of my teeny tiny car, and that made a HUGE difference.

However, if I ever get to pick a move date in the future, it will be during the winter when it’s nice a cold. Moving in 94 degree temperatures with 100% humidity is pure hell. Add in steps to the front door and now having an apartment with a second floor, and it was NOT fun.

I started moving on Tuesday, and by Friday, I thought my lower back was going to explode. I still need to schedule my massage…

Mr. A came home Thursday night and we finished moving things. I had basically everything done except for furniture and some miscellaneous things. We moved the televisions and set up the air mattress and stayed in the new apartment.

Also, pretty sure we put the fewest miles EVER on a rented Uhaul. A grand total of SEVEN. Seven miles folks. We only had to put one gallon of gas back in it. It was more miles back and forth to the rental place than between our apartments. We were done with the truck in 3 hours. Too bad they don’t prorate when you don’t use it for a whole day.

We got things mostly functional, but I didn’t want to spend my last day with Mr. A unpacking, so I told him that I would deal with it after he left so we could enjoy some time doing fun things.

BIG MISTAKE.

Yes, I’m glad that I got to spend time with him, but holy crap. Unpacking might be worse than packing.

The kitchen is the only room that is completely unpacked. The rest of the apartment? Not so much.

This fun pile is definitely still in our living room. Do I know what’s in those boxes? Not really. The stuff in the background is blocking a closet door. Luckily, the closet doesn’t have hardly any space, so I’m not missing much. Someone want a rockband drum set? Because I’m ready to just get rid of it. We played it for a while, but now, not really. It’s in my way.

These are the stairs. Doesn’t look too bad. Those two boxes are things that I need to take to Goodwill and such. Mr. A will freak out if I turn the stairs into a catch-all, so I’m trying to not get into that habit.

But the first pile is immediately to the right of the stairs, and until it’s moved, I can’t put our entryway table there, so the stairs it is. And they are quite convenient for purses and things that eventually need to go upstairs. 🙂

And the upstairs.

Please don’t report me to Hoarders.

This is utterly embarrassing. But this is currently what a corner of our bedroom looks like.

It’s clothes and miscellaneous crap that I need to find a home for. We went from a two bedroom apartment where we basically used the second room as storage for things we never planned on unpacking. We now only have one bedroom, and while there’s more room, we no longer have a room to jam stuff.

And I’m just being lazy and enjoying my time off. I promise it will  get put away. Probably early next week, but only because I’m going home this weekend. I’m in no rush because I know what works for me and how I operate. The longer I stare at it, the more I will hate it and will ensure that I take care of it the right way, and not just half-ass it. It’s a process folks.

Also, I’m coming off of just PACKING AND MOVING all of this. I give myself a week to not have to touch it. Eventually I will need more clothes, so it will happen. (And by shaming myself here on the blog, it will have to get done so I can take real apartment pictures to post for you all!)

So, there’s been a lot of sitting on the couch this week. Yes, being lazy, but I’m allowing it for myself. Do I deserve it? Doubtful. But my husband doesn’t come home until August 17th. As long as it’s done before then so he doesn’t leave me for being a lazy bum, it’s all good. I just won’t show him living room images on Skype. No need to worry him.

For now, I will watch SATC, drink wine, order takeout, and schedule my massage. I sure am lucky.

Surreal

As I sit here in my apartment, everything is very slowly sinking in.

Tonight, I wrote up a moving week list. It’s two freaking pages long.

And no, I didn’t just list everything to pack. Packing is probably one of the things listed on there the least.

I have about a million errands to run tomorrow so that things go as smoothly as possible.

Deal with getting water turned on at new place, off at old place. Get mail forwarded. Maybe go get driver’s license changed. Start packing kitchen stuff. Reserve our Uhaul for Friday. (Speaking of which, is renting a Uhaul like renting a car where you have to be 25?)

And that’s just Monday.

I keep telling everyone that I’m fine with packing and moving by myself, but today, it seems overwhelming. I look around and holy crap do we have a lot of crap. Our apartment isn’t even that big. Geeze.

And I think it’s just weird to be moving into OUR new apartment by MYSELF. I’m picking up keys alone. Working on furniture arrangements alone. Packing and deciding what to keep and what to toss, alone. I think it’s just a lot to process right now.

I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if moving was all I was doing. But I just quit my job as well. No, no, no. Not questioning that decision in the least, but it’s still a little surreal and hasn’t sunk in. I keep thinking, “When is my next shift?” Or about what sale is going on or discounts. And when I drive by it hasn’t sunk in that I will only ever walk into that building as a consumer and I won’t be the one required to talk to customers. Again, very happy about this, just hasn’t all hit.

Also, I start grad school in just over a month. It’s all very weird. I’ve been out of school for so long that it is strange to look at the books I will be reading and studying and writing about and fretting over grades. But being a student isn’t the hard part. I will also be a teacher at the same time. And not to bratty 8th graders or know it all high school sophomores.

To college students. Students not much younger than me, and some possibly older than me. And my professors? They will be my colleagues. I will attend faculty meetings and hear office gossip. Being on both sides of the fence might be a bit of an adjustment for me.

And then there’s the fact that I’m currently a married woman living alone.

Mr. A and I have done long distance when we were dating, but that’s exactly it. We were dating. Now, we’re married with a joint bank account and shared responsibilities and shared items.

But I’ve been feeling like I just have an occasional weekend houseguest that already knows where the towels are and how I like my wine.

And I’m kind of afraid that since I’m moving us into the new apartment and that I will be the one setting it up and decorating and making decisions about where things will go and how the flow of the apartment will flow, that I’m going to feel some sense of claim to it. It won’t feel like ours, but instead, mine and when he comes home in August, I will get perturbed if he tries to move things or messes up my routine or schedule.

The worst part is just going to be not seeing him for weeks at a time. Luckily, I get to visit him and the second half will be spent in graduate assistantship training, so I should be kept busy and won’t be too lonely, but I know the first two weeks will be rough.

So for now, as I watch Sex and the City the show for the first time, and pack boxes and plan out my move, I will live in my surreal state and just try to enjoy it. I mean when else could I watch hours of this show, drink wine, take bubble baths, read books, and lounge around in yoga pants?

Such a Grownup

If I don’t have you on Twitter, I’ll update you.

WE HAVE AN APARTMENT!!!!!!!

Never in a million years did I think I would be so excited about this.

We entered into this apartment game a little late, and it was getting VERY nerve-wracking. We went to look at apartment Meth house first yesterday. We had an appointment, the price was right, the online pictures looked great. Man, am I glad we went to see it before committing. It was a drug dealer’s dream home. Holes punched in doors and walls, no fridge (no clue where that went), drawers missing in the kitchen, stove looked like it was ready to explode, some of the grosses kitchen and bathroom floors that I have ever seen, light fixtures looked like they may set the entire place on fire while you slept. You get the picture?

So, we called around. We visited SuperTownhome apartments. We liked them. It was a two bedroom townhome. Huge living room, large kitchen, washer and dryer in the apt, BIG bedrooms and nice bathroom. It also had a fenced in back patio that was nice.  Truthfully, I fell in love with it, but it was about $150/month more than we were intending on spending. Also, we couldn’t get in until August 5th, and we were wanting to move much sooner than that. However, after all the crap holes we looked at, I thought, “Hey, we will just take out a little more student loans and not live in squalor.” We thought we would probably go ahead and do it, but we figured that we had driven 2 hours, so might as well call a couple other places while in town.

So we called Very Nice Lady Realty*. She showed us an apartment and we really liked it. It was available right away and more in our budget, especially since I am still looking for a job. (Oh, economy. How I hate thee.) It’s a one level apartment, but with two bedrooms. Obviously not as much space as the townhome, but it wasn’t a teeny-tiny closet either. Nice and clean bathroom, nice sized bedrooms, nice living room and super plush carpet. No washer/dryer int he apartment, but they have an on-site laundry area that is key entry only, so it won’t be random people off the street. A lot of law students and med students live in the complex, so not a bunch of freshmen in college who just learned what a beer bong is.

It’s not the biggest and greatest place on the planet, but it is nice and clean and in a great area. It’s very close to school, so Mr. A won’t have far to go. We also won’t be embarrassed to have our friends over, which is nice. We will be on the first floor (only two floors anyways) and we’re on the end, so only one side of us has other people.

We sent in the paperwork this morning. And by lunch we had a phone call that everything was approved and it was ours!!!

This will be our first apartment. The current place is really Mr. A’s apartment and I have stuff stashed here and there. I can’t wait to decorate and get moved in. Can you tell I’m excited? I was afraid we’d be living in the car or at a hotel.

Thought I would post some of the pictures from their website. I think we are trying to move next week, so I will post plenty of pictures after we get settled in!!

It looks smaller in the picture, but both bedrooms have large closets, so we should have plenty of room

A little small, but the shower is nice and it's clean!

Front door/living room from the entrance to the kitchen. It also goes farther to the left The kitchen area. There is also another little area for a kitchen table and chairs.

I can’t wait to move and set up our little home. So very happy.

Life Update

Things around here are a wee bit hectic. While at time I wish I was still in college, I am SO very happy I didn’t have to deal with finals or any of that this past month. I would have gone crazy!

–Fiance has finished his MBA program and he is very excited. I am glad he will get a break this summer before law school starts and I can have my happy guy back. He gets a little cranky towards the end of the semester because of all the projects and finals.

–One of my roommates ahd her wedding today. I know she wasn’t happy with what was going on. Her mom basically hijacked the whole thing and it isn’t what she wanted at all. She didn’t even get to pick out her won cake. Her mom did it without her. So, I could tell there was some tension and she wasn’t comfortable, so it was a little strange. But, she looked great and now they are married. That’s all that matters, right? Hopefully her mom will back off so she and the husband can settle in.

–I have been trying to find someone to take over the lease on my apartment for the summer for a while now. When I signed the lease through this July, I wasn’t quite thinking far enough ahead and my apartment complex company won’t just let you pay a fee to get out of a lease. You HAVE to find a replacement person, which isn’t always the easiest. Until….one of my roommate’s friends needed a place for the summer!! Long story short….she’s getting paperwork finished. I’m paying the transfer fee. And I’m moving out tomorrow.

Yes. Tomorrow. Busy much? Anyone want to come and help move boxes? I’ll supply the drinks and food?

–Fiance and I went out after the wedding with our friends A and R and we really enjoyed spending time with them. I’m in A’s wedding in July and I’m pretty excited about it. My bridesmaid dress has pockets and it’s super cute. Come on…pockets!

–This week I think is going to be nuts. I am hoping to get some calls to sub, but I can’t Wednesday because of some appointments I had already made because I thought we would be out of school by now. Silly snow days. And I almost want to take Monday off so I can organize stuff here at the fiance’s/my new apartment. ALL of my stuff is going to have to fit. Might get a little cramped this summer. The MIL has offered her basement to us for storage, so we might have to take her up on that.

–Wedding is in 14 days!! I cannot wait! I’m excited about the wedding and I’m looking forward to it all. But one of the things I’m most looking forward to is that fiance’s groomsman and best man are staying int he same hotel we are. Our hotel has a roof top bar. The wedding ends at 10. We’re planning on changing and hanging out with them for a little while. I think it will be great just to talk with our close friends without all the people and just get to relax. And then of course going to Mexico three days later. Beach. Sun. Water. Gourmet restaurants. 17 days til paradise!

I think I’ve rambled enough tonight. Hope everyone has a great weekend and spend some time and enjoy the weather!

New Teacher. New Wife.

—–Feel free to come help move tomorrow. If you have nothing better to do…..;-)