Positively Beaming

I want to take a moment to share something I am very proud of...

I have just finished putting all my stuff away at Carrie's.

This is not monumental for most people, I know. But if you could've seen what I had done to her apartment with boxes and bags you would maybe feel the same way I do. Accomplished. And, as I told a friend earlier, kind of like a squirrel that has hidden its acorns everywhere.

You see, it's not just me who's staying with Carrie right now. Our friend Tyler is also here. And Tyler, being the first to arrive at Carrie's hostel for lost and wandering friends, has the guest room. I tried to put as little in there as I could out of respect for his space, but some things just couldn't be helped.

The rest of my stuff is stored creatively and unintrusively throughout the rest of the apartment. At least that's what I hope she will think.

I would like to be as unsquirrel-esq as possible when it comes time to move, however. So, I've been taking both mental and physical note of where everything is - including my stuff in Linds H.'s house in Laramie. I know that sounds geeky, but I'm hoping when the time comes, it will help me know where all my nuts are stored.

Packing Thought

I hate asking my friends to come over and help me pack and paint, but when you're a girl with no job, professional movers just don't fit in the budget!

So, tomorrow a few folks are going to help me get everything done.

The one person who will NOT be here is the friend I always swore would be the only one to help me when I decided to leave. That is because I helped this particular friend move several times over the years. Just me. And one time in the middle of the night. And always with garbage bags as his "boxes."

You know who you are...and you're lucky you're in L.A.!

Progress!

Yesterday I started packing – in earnest anyway.

I know this is generally pretty high on the list of priorities for a person about to move, but packing has really been the least of my concerns.

There are a few reasons, I’ve been telling myself, as to why I think this is.

First of all, I’m not a packrat. I get rid of things I don’t need. I don’t collect anything, I’m pretty good at throwing out papers, and what I do have is pretty organized.

Most of this is just my personality, but some of it is because I don’t have a lot of extra space to store a bunch of junk, which is my second reason. (The readers who have razzed me about this for years can just keep their comments to themselves here!)

Based on this I really have thought it won’t take me that long to throw what I do have into some boxes.

I realized yesterday this is not so.

Now, I’ve moved before, several times actually, but not in the past seven years. I kind of forgot there’s a whole sorting and weeding out process that a person about to move usually goes through. Shoot - the better part of my morning was spent trying on clothes I hadn’t worn in ages and trying to determine if I’d ever wear them again.

Then I remembered all the drawers where old CDs, stationary, wrapping paper, spare cell phones for just in case (this is necessary with my track record), tools, phone books, the harmonica I have yet to learn to play, markers, vases, etc., are stored.

So I got some boxes at the grocery store and got to work.

Let me clarify that yesterday was my first serious attempt at packing. I kind of started going through things last weekend, beginning with the books on the shelves by my bed. But after looking at the empty space I stopped. They just looked so bare. Then my imagination got the better of me and I thought, soon, this is the way the rest of my apartment will look.

In one swift second I could see the naked walls, the vacant shelves, the open spaces that I’ve filled over the last seven years…and reality hit me, along with a wave of emotion. I haven’t put a thing in a box since.

So, yesterday was a big step. I felt that, instead of talking about it, thinking about it, (blogging about it), and planning lots of dinners and happy hours because of it, I had finally started acting like a person about to leave. And I did it without any waterworks.

Does that mean I was totally unaffected? Of course not. I mean, come on, let’s be realistic here.