Moving, that is. On Tuesday we flew back to Durham to clean out our house and move everything that was left behind out. We haven't sold the house yet, but we needed to get this all done before school starts. Before we got down there, we thought, "We've already moved the big stuff, we just have a few things to store and pack up, it shouldn't take that long." Haha, my how we underestimated the amount of stuff we still had. It really does accumulate quickly.
Matt was working at the Research Triangle Park location this week, which was nice because Credit Suisse paid for his flight and the rental car that we needed to get things back up to NYC with. I flew separately, but that was ok. He worked Wednesday and Thursday while I ran errands, saw friends, shopped, and packed things up at the house. Even though we've only been gone for a month and a half, it was great to be back and to see friends and family. Having access to a car was nice and the Bojangles biscuit I had tasted extra delicious.
To store or donate what was left in our house, we had to split it all up among 5 different places: Matt's parent's house in Winston-Salem, Mom's house in Charlotte, Graham's apartment in Asheville, some friends' house at Lake Norman, and Goodwill. Just coordinating all of that took a lot of mental energy. We rented another Budget truck (we recommend Budget to anyone out there needing to haul stuff) - this time just a 10 foot truck - and it was packed to the gills again. Matt's dad, Murray, came to help us and we filled up his car, along with a trailer he brought, and our car with stuff. We just had no idea we would need this much space!!!
All of this stuff (truck, two cars, and a trailer) went to W-S, Lake Norman or Charlotte. We drove it all down on Friday afternoon. We spent the night at mom's new house in Charlotte and met Nick's daughter Hannah. We had a lovely evening and it was good to recover from the looong day's work.
On Saturday morning we got up, drove our car back to Durham to finish things up. We still had to take things to Goodwill (an entire car's worth), pack up our rental van, clean the house, and sell Matt's car before driving to South Jersey to spend the night. Rain didn't help things. We were already exhausted, but we kept going and got everything at the house cleaned and packed up by 6:15. We sold Matt's car at Carmax and got on the road to NJ by 8:00pm...not ideal. It was a long night, but we made it without incident by 3:15am.
Today, we got up after just a few hours of sleep, had some breakfast, and made it to NYC with our packed-to-the-gills rental van. We unloaded the van and returned it by 3. Charlie had been staying with a friend, so I collected him (he was so happy to see me!) and we've all been taking it easy this afternoon.
Matt and I commented at about 1:30 this morning that one of the things that makes our marriage strong is that we support each other and make each other laugh during the stressful, hard times. These last few days were a testament to that.
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Side note 1: If you've ever heard Matt or me rant talk about the bamboo issue in our yard, you'll understand how funny this headline in the Durham paper on Friday was to us:
It took us leaving and letting our bamboo go for them to realize the problem, I guess. If you haven't heard us talk about our bamboo or ever encountered bamboo - just know that it is the strongest root system out there and to get rid of it you have to use a backhoe to dig six feet down and pour a layer of concrete over the roots to stop them from infiltrating your yard. We almost got a panda instead of a dog to take care of our yard.
Side note 2: I might have unsuspectingly been convinced that I could eventually be a minivan person. I have said repeatedly that I would never, ever own a minivan. But, our rental van was a Chrysler Town and Country that thing was like driving a rocket ship! I've never seen so many storage places, gadgets, and cool features before. They've come a long way from the vans I rode in as a kid. We'll see in a few years...for now we are totally car-less! What a liberating feeling!
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This coming week will be filled with more city fun; Matt's mom, Gale, and a friend are coming to town to spend a few days. I'm sure we'll get into lots of fun and see some interesting things! Have a great week everyone, especially my teacher friends who are setting up classrooms and getting ready for another year : )
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