Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Baby Nuthouse: moving day

Today is moving day. Yesterday some people I never met before boxed up my underwear and all our books and bits of trash I had forgotten to throw away. Today a big truck is coming and more people I never met before are putting the boxes and our furniture and all the junk from our garage onto the truck.

No doubt about it, this is way better than the old days of trying to balance a kid on my hip while filling last minute boxes labeled “misc.” But unless you are actually out of the country during the entire process, moving is stressful. There’s that whole element of change, moving from the familiar to the unknown. There’s the time crunch, never enough hours in the day. Should I shower? Read a book to my kids? Sleep? No, I’d better pack a box/call the moving company/email the realtor/find some caffeine.

I’ve sort of become an expert on moving. Many years ago my husband and I bought our first home, a 1,400-square-foot bungalow in southwest Missouri. Moving, even with no children and a small collection of secondhand furniture, was so painful that I swore I would stay in that house forever.

Little did I know. My husband and I are now moving to our eighth home in eleven years.

Moving ought to somehow be included in the wedding vows. Sickness and health we can deal with, but when the U-Haul truck you reserved is mysteriously unavailable, and you are paying an hourly wage to a couple of college students who are watching football on TV because there is nothing left for them to do without a truck, and your six-month-old is screaming because Mommy has had a phone to her ear all day (on hold waiting for an actual human being from U-Haul to pick up the line)...

Now, that’s when marital commitment really comes into play.

3 comments:

Kersten said...

Ha ha! That's so true. And so painful. Moving is the worst! But hey, you're off on a new adventure...how exciting!

Cloudsters said...

Eight moves in 11 years? With kids in tow? Come on, admit it: You folks are addicted to moving. You like it! You really really like it...

Ruth said...

cloudsters you are so right. I think we must be addicts.Today after driving across westerm Colorado and Utah, I decided it must have been our ancestors that were crazy enough to cross the Rockies with covered wagons.
but, as you say, Kersten, it's a fun adventure...and we are usually up for an adventure.