moving on up (a week in review)

it's been a helluva week. not sure i'll remember everything, but i'll give it a shot!! thursday 7/5 after scrambling to get out of the office early (got to love junk mail related emergencies!), i picked up my mother at the train station and headed home to meet some folks from work who had GRACIOUSLY offered to help me empty the fried-tape boxes from the attic so we could get them re-taped before the movers got there on tuesday. my friend jenn and i went off to pick up some virginia bbq for dinner, while her husband buck, jay, and jeffrey unloaded the attic in record time. (they were quite pleased to find that it is a walk-up attic as opposed to one of those creaky pull-down from the ceiling contraptions!) they were done before jenn and i made it back with dinner! we enjoyed a wonderful southern meal (mmmmm hush puppies and sweet tea!) before they all left. my mom passed out on the couch due to her long day of train travel, and i returned a call to our realtor. someone wanted to come see our house - yeah! on saturday - boo! the weekend really needs to be all about the packing, but we also really need to sell the house. so friday would have to be a "make the house look presentable even though we are mid-move" day instead of a "hard core crazy packing" day. sigh. friday 7/6 i had to work friday, but i gave my mom a list of stuff to work on while i was out, mainly re-taping and organizing the boxes the boys had brought down from attic the day before. we also found some stuff that could be easily packed without making the house look empty for the showing the next day. she got going on her list and i headed off to work. until our entire day was thrown off course... around lunch time i received a phone call from my mom. jackson the beagle had gotten into her suitcase (he knows how to open zippers!) and had eaten her entire week of medications and vitamins including blood pressure medicine and a crapload of ibuprofen. (she takes fish oil pills and we think that the aroma of those was just TOO good to ignore for jackie's beagle nose!) fortunately (or unfortunately - not sure) this was not the first time jack has ingested mass quantities of human medication so i am familiar with the routine. last time, when he ate a whole box of zicam, i wrote down the instructions from the aspca's poison control hotline (god bless them) on how to induce vomiting in a canine (hydrogen peroxide and ice cream - yum!) i told my mom where to find those instructions as well as the puppy poison control phone number. she got off the phone with me to get working on the ice cream concoction and to call poison control. she got him to vomit on the first try, but the aspca recommended that he get to a vet asap to get some activated charcoal. turns out of all the stuff he ate, ibuprofen is the worst and can be fatal in dogs. i called the vet and got them to squeeze us in even though they were booked all afternoon. i scooted out of work early to get him to the vet. jack got his dose of charcoal from dr. riley (and apparently enjoyed it!) dr. riley said that most pets hate the stuff, but jack ate it right up - figures! back at home, jack was relaxing on the couch in the living room. the living room with the light tan carpets. without any notice at all, he vomited up the charcoal from his belly. on the light tan rug. fun. remember that we have a showing at noon the next day. and we're supposed to be packing. because the movers that are already paid for are coming on tuesday. mom and i spent about an hour cleaning the huge black puddle out of the carpet. by the time we were done, you couldn't even tell it was ever there. phew. but we lost essentially a whole day of packing and cleaning time. we used the rest of friday evening to organize and clean the house as much as possible for the showing on saturday. but there was still a ton to do before noon... but jack is ok :) saturday 7/7 we got up pretty early to get to work cleaning and prepping for the showing. absolutely no packing was done. but by 11:30 a.m. the downstairs rooms were gleaming and looked thoroughly lived-in. the upstairs rooms were mostly empty, except for some well-organized boxes, but they were good enough to show. these people have to understand that we're seriously in the middle of moving, right??? we loaded the dogs into the car, went through the drive-thru for some limeades, and then pulled into the parking lot across the street from our house to scope out these potential buyers. they stayed in the house for 12 minutes - a new record for one of our showings! maybe 7/7/7 would be our lucky day! we headed back in once they left and rested a bit before launching into some serious no holds barred packing. we got a lot done. it looked like a tornado had come through our house, but boxes were getting filled left and right. we got a good chunk of the living room, dining room, master bathroom, and master bedroom done. the kitchen and the shed loomed in front of us, but we had some major reinforcements coming in the next day. feeling good about our progress, despite the inconvenience of the house showing and jackson's digestive pyrotechnics :) sunday 7/8 another early day for me and mom. we got back to work on the dining room and living room while our assistants for the day made their ways toward richmond. jenny and john came down from dc to help and jeremy's mom came up from williamsburg again. they all arrived around the same time and we all got back to work. virginia and jenny ROCKED OUT the kitchen (major props to them!!) while john tackled the scary, manly outdoor project - the shed. my mom kept going in the living room and i essentially finished the dining room. we ran out of cube and medium boxes at one point so jenny and i made a trip to the uhaul store to get more. the girl there officially knows me now and couldn't believe we were back for more! i have too much stuff. jeremy - please notice i said "i" - i know it's my fault :) additionally, we unloaded the contents of our kitchen cupboards on to the counters and everyone went grocery shopping before they left. by the time the help dispersed, we were tired but feeling really good that we would be ready for the movers to show up on tuesday.

monday 7/9 i had to work again, but mom kept busy while i was out, packing boxes and shredding catalogs to use a packing material. my sister becky and her boyfriend came by "to help" after work, though they really didn't do anything except distract us from packing. oh well. at least they took some more of the unwanted food with them. a scheduled trip to the vet for bailey (just his regular shots) also slowed us down. it was a late, late night as we tried to get everything packed before the movers arrived some time between 9-11 the next day. i tackled as much of the master bedroom as i could before having to throw in the towel a little after midnight. if i wasn't pregnant i could probably have stuck it out much longer, but the extraordinarily swollen ankles, back pain, and general fatigue just wouldn't allow it. i set my alarm for 6 the next morning, while mom continued to work well into the night (she didn't go to bed until 3:20!!!) tuesday 7/10 i got right out of bed at 6, nervous about our ability to be ready for the movers when they got there. i decided to let mom sleep in since she had been up so late, especially when i saw how much progress she had made! with my energy refreshed and my ankles at their new "normal" size i was able to finish the master bedroom by 7 a.m., including isolating things i didn't want the movers packing into the master bathroom, master closet, and guest bathroom - three areas they didn't even need to touch! mom got up at 7 and between the 2 of us we tackled as many of those weird items that you end up with (you know the oddly sized or shaped ones that just don't fit nicely into boxes) as we could. i also ran out quickly to get bottled water and gatorade for the movers ( it was gonna be a HOT one!) and to hit up the atm for cash to tip them at the end of the day. we were making good progress, but secretly hoping the movers would come toward the later part of their 9-11 window. nope. they pulled up at 9:06. we got the dogs crated up, and took the movers for a walk-through of all that would need to be POD-packed. they immediately expressed concern about the ability to fit it all in 2 PODS, but committed to giving it their best shot. 2 of them got going loading the PODS, while the 3rd started packing up all the stuff we hadn't gotten to yet (lamps, framed art, etc.) there wasn't much left for mom and i to do by 10ish so we just watched as they hauled and hauled and hauled. not looking good for getting it all in to the 2 PODS. by 3 p.m. they had gotten everything out of the house (furniture and boxes) that they were supposed to, but the PODS were bursting at the seams. all the outdoor stuff (patio furniture, grill, shed contents) remained but there just wasn't room. oh well. the movers went on their way just as the thunder clouds rolled in and jeremy and i started planning "plan b" to get the remaining stuff up to massachusetts. "plan b" basically consists of a one-way plane ticket for jeremy and a uhaul truck :) no fun, but there's enough stuff left that it is worth it. 20 minutes after the movers left, the realtor called. someone wanted to come see the house in a half hour. though i am quite desperate to sell the house, i had to say hell no. when the movers moved the furniture, we discovered several of the kitty's favorite hiding places. there were patches of black cat hair under everything. the house was a certifiable disaster area. we took a chance that the potential buyers would be willing to come on wednesday instead. the realtor called back a few minutes later to say that we were on for 3 p.m. on wednesday. phew. but another freaking showing to prepare for when we have some MAJOR cleaning to do. oh well, gotta sell the house. realtor did mention that the peeps who saw it on saturday absolutely loved the house, but they were concerned about the lot across the street. but they liked it enough to call the city to research the plans for the lot across the street, so that's promising. we'll see. i had to run off to a going-away happy hour that my coworkers were having for me and mom stayed home relaxing (though without any furniture!) and doing some organizing. later that night i made a walmart run to get us some blow-up mattresses to sleep on. i think i totally scored a $37 air mattress for free thanks to the general incompetence of my walmart cashier. sweet. the air mattresses weren't the most comfortable ones in the world, but after a long day of packing and moving, they were good enough. wednesday 7/11 reality sets in. there is no freaking way we'll get all the remaining packing, cleaning, spackling, etc. done in time to leave on thursday plus be ready for the showing at 3. it's just not going to happen. even if we stayed for 3-4 more days we probably couldn't get it all done to my standards. we decide to add the spackling and painting to jeremy's agenda for his "plan b" trip and to hire merry maids to do the cleaning when jeremy is back in richmond. we started packing up the remaining things to make jer's uhaul loading easier. and cleaning up all the cat and dog fur. which is when the vacuum craps out. yes, the $500+ dyson. lovely. it just wasn't picking up any of the hair like it normally does. but i quickly diagnosed two issues - one it was set on the bare floor setting (why? i do not know) and i was doing carpet, and the beater bar thing was coated in layers of tangled thread, hair, etc. after switching the setting and cleaning out the beater bar we were back in business sucking up fur like a freaking dyson should. phew. i didn't want to have to hate my dyson. i love my dyson. at 1:57 the doorbell rings. it's the potential buyer and her agent. my mom is holding 3 of the dogs by their collars and i had the 4th. this is a rough re-enactment of our conversation: realtor: did your realtor tell you we were coming? me: (tersely) yes. at 3. realtor: (awkward pause, as if waiting for me to offer to let them see it now) me: we're in the middle of moving. come back at 3. realtor: ok we'll come back at 3. me: great. i'm sure we're at the top of their list now, but i don't care. i just want to be able to get on the road like we're supposed to on thursday. mom and i quickly finished up what we were doing, loaded the dogs into the car, deciding to forgo the limeade, and parked across the street to watch. they came back promptly at 3 and stayed in the house for 6 minutes. not bad considering there is no furniture or decor of any kind in it. just empty rooms. we dropped the dogs off and set out to run some errands. i dropped my mom off at the scrapbooking store while i ran into the office to check email and do some web-necessary to-do items. afterwards, we dropped a bunch a crap off at the goodwill, grabbed some wine boxes from the wine store to pack our wine in, and grabbed dinner (our first real meal in days!) at lonestar. delicious. except i think i left my cell phone there, though they said they didn't find it. so if you're trying to call me, that why i am not answering. there's a chance that my phone is just somewhere else amongst all the chaos but i'm pretty sure i left it there. oh well. it was circa 2003 and dying a slow death anyway, but it does suck to be without cell phone. so that's it. yesterday was a relatively uneventful drive from richmond to my parents' house where all the rupons were reunited for the first time in over a month! the dogs and i are hanging out here catching up on email and other things, while jeremy had to run back to boston for a meeting this morning. next on the agenda - figuring out how to not be mortgage-paying homeless people!