Susan's list

Folks, I promise a later list of favorite crime stories. I just got online again after almost a week in the black hole of no social networking – arrrgggh!

Right now, my world consists of about 190 boxes, cables draped over and around furniture that is stowed rather than placed in the new rooms, closets filled with unsorted clothes, which will come in handy if I have to change from my dirty jeans and sweatshirt into an evening dress. Unless I need heels to go with the dress. They are in one of an embarrassingly large number of boxes marked simply “Shoes” and stored in any of the four lovely closets in my new house.

Here is another kind of list, some things I packed up and carried, even though there is no logic to my decisions. In fact, in most cases, I was so staggeringly tired that I didn’t think at all:

• a pair of cedar shoe trees I haven’t used since I was newly married
• two sets of fireplace tools, one of which is defective
• a 10-pound atlas of the world, which includes Rhodesia and the Soviet Union
• 14 large vases, none of which is either an antique or crystal
• the curled and food-spattered bits and pieces – photos, childish scribbles, a postcard of the Buddha and another of Mark Morris as a handsome young man – that decorated my former refrigerator

You get the picture. Sitting here writing about them is so much easier than working my way up to the place where I will make the hard calls about what’s next for them. The good news is this house, unlike the last, has a garage. Which means I can finally have a garage sale. Any interest out there in a few really nice vases or a set of magnetized words to create poetry on your refrigerator door?

 

Comments

[camille minichino]

A vivid picture, Susan . . . perhaps more relevant because most of us have been there! My husband's trick was to ask, "Is this (object) worth its weight in moving fees and time in packing/unpacking?" But in the throes of moving, I couldn't be so organized!

I hope you have many wonderful years in your new home!

[Mysti]

Much empathy--we moved last year. My husband's EXTENSIVE collection of media and books was dwarfed only by my own obsessive clinging to every class note I ever took anywhere.

The good news is, you can just take it one box at a time ;)

I love vases, by the way!

[Pat Morin]

We just moved three months ago, but for us it's been an every two-year thing lately. Now we have less boxes and less furniture. This down-sizing has it's advantages. And talk about mysteries. I do wonder about what some people whose photos were attached to magnets on the fridge many years ago.

Mounds of boxes can be crazy-making. Remember to exhale, and pour some wine. Then smile at your new home, and the plot of land soon to be your garden!!!YAY! Congratulations!

[Michael A. Black]

Susan, just make sure you don't put everything into the garage "temporarily" or it might become "the world's largest walk-in closet." Moving is always a pain. Good luck.

[Susan Shea]

Thanks everyone for your sympathy, empathy, good wishes, and humor!

[Ann]

Good luck with the unpacking and sorting, Susan. I can attest to Michael's comment. I just unpacked a box of old craft supplies that pre-date 1987. Hmm. Guess I won't be needing those in the future! ;-)