Pack, Unpack, Repeat: It’s Moving Time!

My life lately has been about boxes. I pack them, I unpack them and then I do it again. And why am I doing this? Because I’m moving, silly people!

This time is more like the moving of my childhood. When I was younger, my mom, brother and I were always moving from one apartment to another. It seemed like every few years my mom would call upon friends and family to help us load everything into cars and trucks and transfer all our goodies to a new place. Mind you, we didn’t go far. We always lived in the same town, just different apartments.

It would be a weekend long endeavor. I don’t recall helping much but maybe I did. Knowing me, I probably entertained everyone by singing the whole time.

Now as an adult married to the military, I have movers that come and take care of this task for me. And not just movers. There are PACKERS too! That’s right. You heard me. We have people that come a day or two before the truck and they pack everything in boxes. And I mean EVERYTHING.

We’ve heard the stories of packers packing garbage and dirty laundry. They aren’t just tall tales; they actually happened. I’ve never had anything as awful as that but they once packed my daughter’s library books. They were too quick and I didn’t set them aside. Fortunately for me, the library was understanding and I was able to mail them back once we received our goods on the other end. Not only that, but I learned a valuable lesson: clearly mark what isn’t going!

In addition to the packers, there are movers who come and haul your furniture and boxes into the moving truck. They disassemble your furniture and reassemble it when it arrives. You can also have them unpack your boxes too! There’s a lot of complaining we do about the military but this is one perk I enjoy.

But now, I am responsible for all of it. Obviously not me by myself but you get the picture. My spouse and I did a great job in the beginning. We closed on Friday morning and started moving right away. It was easy to take everything from the garage and lower level to the new townhome. It got rough when we started on the second level and had to bring it up to the second level. All those stairs get tiring!

My youngest daughter joined us on day two. in the afternoon. She was a great help but it was hot and muggy and those stairs didn’t help anything. I’m definitely feeling my age. As the day wore on, we slowed down.

I always felt bad for our movers since we always move in the summer but this year I feel a special kinship with them. I’m not taking them for granted anymore. And for the record, if we have to move ourselves again, I’m hiring professionals for the whole thing.

Happy Anniversary, Baby!

Yesterday was my 25th anniversary. Happy Silver celebration to us! I posted a pic of my spouse and I toasting at two different locations. Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case yesterday. But let me tell you, early on in his military career, we spent waaayyy too many holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations apart. This year we were able to celebrate together along with our youngest daughter.

As we were sitting down to dinner at a restaurant, I was telling them that I hadn’t written anything for this blog. I was busy writing for my publications that PAY me so I didn’t get to it. “Besides” I said, “I was planning on reposting my article about our love story.”

My daughter went off the rails. She couldn’t believe that I would recycle material. My hubby agreed. She told me that my readers expected new material every week and that I couldn’t let them down. Now, those of you who follow me, thank you. But I’m not in the same space as Elle magazine in terms of followers.

Even though it hurt me to say it, she was right. I said “sorry” and apologized. But why is that so hard?

I mean, Sir Elton John got it right when he said, “Sorry seems to be the hardest word.”

He is right. And everyone knows it. I was watching “Gray’s Anatomy” the other day and Meredith was complaining about how your mom makes you apologize after you’ve hurt someone on the playground. She forces you to apologize. And why, she ponders. “That kid totally deserved it.” But every parent does it. We make our children say “sorry” whether they think they did anything wrong or not.

And then there’s admitting you were wrong. Another difficult task. Back in the 90’s, Alain and I loved watching a show called, “Home Improvement.” The husband and wife team of Tim Allen and Patricia Richardson was hysterical and we saw ourselves in them. In one episode, Tim “the tool man” Taylor’s wife, Jill has to apologize to him because she was wrong. Instead of saying those two words, she eventually tells him, “I have wronged you.” And all the while she does it with a southern drawl.

That became my go-to response when I had to apologize. So I found myself once again needing to admit wrongdoing.

“I have wronged you.”

And happy anniversary, baby.