footsore and tired

I'm at my office, having taught my first day of summer school -- I'm grateful to be able to check my email and just sit on my rear for an hour. Then I have to go back to the chaos.

Actually, things haven't been so bad. If I'd had more time to pack in advance, it might have been easier. But it is what it is. And we're getting through it.

Thursday we packed and bought a new (larger) bed & mattress.

Friday, the big day, went really well -- a very strong friend of a friend who was also a good truck-organizer (not all move helpers are) really saved our butts. So we got all the furniture and most of the heavy boxes moved Friday. We also put the new bed together and spent the night at our new place.

Saturday we unpacked a few boxes and went out to buy a washer/dryer. (We have so totally moved up the ladder of bourgeois comfort, it is a little scary. Also scary how much money you can lay out in a single weekend.)

Sunday and Monday was a mixture of unpacking at the new house and packing up the kitchen and odds and ends at the old. Amazing how many odds and ends there wind up being. All of this delayed by the plumbing problem that showed up Sunday afternoon -- a few hours later we had diagnosed the issue (a "slow pipe" -- something too big for us to handle) (after my gf bravely plunged and snaked to no avail) but at least we figured out how to have a workable toilet for the rest of the holiday weekend.

This morning our landlord had dug up the backyard and was replacing pipes when I left the house. You know the dogs are going to love the smell of the yard now. . .

I'm hoping to get the remaining things out of the old place tonight. Maybe do the final sweeping out tomorrow before turning in our keys. Cleaning out the old place is always the worst part for me -- I'm ready to be settling in to the new house, not cleaning up the giant dust bunnies that have suddenly come out from every corner.

Later this week our DSL gets turned on and our washer/dryer get delivered. Hopefully I'll get all the boxes emptied by the end of the weekend -- since I actually have to teach this week, it's going to be a little slower than I might like.

What I have learned: we are definitely getting older. The blisters on the feet, the sore hamstrings, the general tiredness are worse this time around. But my gf and I also work together as a team much better than we used to, so it's mostly been pretty smooth overall in terms of our getting along. Moving is such a weirdly emotional process. And isolating -- I feel so out of touch with the rest of the world -- I've had terrible internet withdrawal, and have barely talked on the phone to anyone either. (Plus not showering and wearing grubby clothes contributes to feeling out of sync with the world during our brief forays for food and coffee.) Up in front of class today I felt like quite an impostor, as I pretended to be articulate, sane, and organized. (I'd had to wash my face (no shower) at the old house because our water was off; I barely managed to find matching shoes; and I'm definitely underfed. But I managed the first day OK anyway.)

Maybe tomorrow I'll have a chance to actually read some blogs and see what you all have been up to. . .