Things I Have Learned While Moving
1. Don’t move.
2. You REALLY don’t want to move in Boston.
3. You really REALLY don’t want to move in Boston on September 1st.
4. Your current apartment will want you out of your place on August 31st, so they can clean. Your new apartment will not let you move in until 1 p.m. on the 1st, so they can clean. Raise your hand if you would rather have that $130 for the moving van and $100 for a hotel room than that probably-not-that-much-cleaner apartment?
5. Things you can give away for free on Craigslist within 12 hours:
– parts of a broken hookah
– those Emergen-c packets you hate, the ones that taste like your tongue is decaying with every sip
– 3 jigsaw puzzles
– that deck of novelty drinking game cards you had two sets of from your Christmas stockings
– an air conditioner
6. We are, obviously, pack rats. Lance worse than I. He’s the one that wouldn’t let me throw away the silly package of bar cards.
7. Lance, however, is not as sentimental about his beloved soup pot as I once thought. We broke its lid in a freak accident months ago, and it is now time to say goodbye.
8. Moving is a fugue state. I used to feel this way about exam week in undergrad: it sucked, because I had to take exams and study and it was stressful, but I didn’t have to go to classes, most of my exams lasted less than an hour, my work schedule was different. So even though it wasn’t exactly fun, I did get to do things like sleep in, study leisurely with ample breaks for playing Super Nintendo emulators on my computer, go out with friends.
This week, my job is Move. It is stressful, and it sucks, but when I’m not actively packing or making plans or running errands, I really have not much to do.
And instead of fretting over what to cook each day, we decided to take our grocery money and use it to eat out when we want. The cost won’t be terribly more than our grocery spending, and it’s just more convenient. I have eaten Qdoba twice this week and had my favorite sandwich from my favorite sandwich place. So more fun, too.
It’s a mixed bag.
9. Due to #4, you will have to abandon all of your frozen and refrigerated goods. Please, dear movers, acknowledge this reality months before your move, and do not allow your chronically optimistic boyfriend to delude you until it’s too late to eat all of your frozen goodies.
10. You can pack an entire box of your own belongings without making a visual dent in the amount of crap left in your apartment. Actually, you can keep packing boxes with the same effect, for at least 15 boxes, most likely more. I’ll keep you posted.
11. Moving Day Suckitude does not necessarily decrease with the distance of the move. Yes, it would be hard to beat a 24 hour, sleeping at rest stops, move in at eleven p.m. by yourself up three flights of stairs…. but given #4 and the complications of… oh… having to go to work the morning after and go to work and class on Friday? Well, this one could take the cake.
12. I am no longer infatuated with a new apartment. Any new apartment.
13. Unless it has over 1000 square feet of space
14. And a spare room.
15. And a pantry.
16. And central air.
17. Or a gym!
18. I’m going to bed…