Today's word: AACK!
In spite of the beautiful weather outside, today I feel a bit overwhelmed. It could be the reality of the countdown hitting home. But things are pretty well organized, and I'm checking items off the To Do list at a fairly steady pace. The pod has been ordered from 1800packrat.com and is scheduled to arrive on Friday. I've notified the utilities to shut off services on the 27th. I've ordered checks with the new address for the new bank account. I picked up the change of address packet from the Post Office. Everything necessary will be done by the time I leave for Alexandria on the 30th.
Note that I said, "Everything necessary." Some things may have to wait, like making sure the car passes the Virginia safety inspection. Some things I won't be able to do until I get down there. Finding a new insurance agent, a new doctor, a dentist, a new church, etc. One more list filed in my Pocket Briefcase.
My calendar, on the other hand, is filling up at an alarming rate. Friends booking a lunch here and a dinner there. A couple of them have planned a packing party for this Saturday, which will take place after Holy Needles meets that morning.
And somewhere in the midst of all of this, I have a sermon to write.
Baby steps. One thing at a time. That's the best way to handle big projects; break them down into manageable increments. It will all get done.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Fourteen Days
The temperature reached above 80 today, and fire departments continue to worry about brush fires. I had to dig out the fan in hopes that it will draw enough cool air into the apartment, so I can sleep tonight. In the middle of April? Maybe I brought it back from Virginia. Roses were blooming when I was down there last week. It looks like we're in for a hot dry summer, and I'm moving south!
In the midst of this heat, I started to make some real headway with packing. Not so much in the number of boxes packed, but in getting stuff organized. I have a lot more empty shelves and drawers at this point in time than I thought, but I also have fewer boxes. It's a sign of how much I've de-accumulated over the last six years. Not to mention what I've tossed and given away over the past couple of weeks.
The fasting growing list is now the one of things I need to do in terms of the new job. People I need to meet with, systems to review, summer shut down to deal with.
I'll need to lay in a supply of PostIt Notes when I get there...
In the midst of this heat, I started to make some real headway with packing. Not so much in the number of boxes packed, but in getting stuff organized. I have a lot more empty shelves and drawers at this point in time than I thought, but I also have fewer boxes. It's a sign of how much I've de-accumulated over the last six years. Not to mention what I've tossed and given away over the past couple of weeks.
The fasting growing list is now the one of things I need to do in terms of the new job. People I need to meet with, systems to review, summer shut down to deal with.
I'll need to lay in a supply of PostIt Notes when I get there...
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Fifteen Days
Fifteen days. Two weeks and one day. I look around my apartment and at my To Do list and my first response is "EEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"
Actually, I don't have too much to worry about in terms of packing up the apartment. Friends have planned a packing party for next Saturday. Since I'm arranging for a moving/storage pod, whatever doesn't get packed then, I can get put into the pod during the next week--my last week here.
The To Do list is another story. Most of the list consists of things I have to take care of myself.
It continues to surprise me how much stuff I'm throwing out during this process. And the number of things I've put aside to give away. Of course, some of this accumulated stuff relates to my old job, and I won't need it for the new one. That means at least three additional pieces of furniture won't make the trip to Virginia.
Okay, back to sorting...
Actually, I don't have too much to worry about in terms of packing up the apartment. Friends have planned a packing party for next Saturday. Since I'm arranging for a moving/storage pod, whatever doesn't get packed then, I can get put into the pod during the next week--my last week here.
The To Do list is another story. Most of the list consists of things I have to take care of myself.
It continues to surprise me how much stuff I'm throwing out during this process. And the number of things I've put aside to give away. Of course, some of this accumulated stuff relates to my old job, and I won't need it for the new one. That means at least three additional pieces of furniture won't make the trip to Virginia.
Okay, back to sorting...
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Heading Home to Move Home
I'm on Amtrak's Train 148 heading north to Stamford after a day-and-a-half in Alexandria. I met with new colleagues, saw the new apartment, had dinner with a friend, and had the unexpected pleasure of lunch today with a friend and former colleague. I have a much clearer idea of what I'm facing in the new job, and I'm favorably impressed by the folks I'll be working with. I also know that my friends in the MD/DC/VA area won't let me become a hermit when I'm not working. I already have three invitations to local churches, a list historic sites to visit with a Civil War buff, a couple of dinner invitations, and a place to go for Thanksgiving. And I'll have an apartment big enough to invite friends to dinner at my place!
In 17 days I head back south. (That's 18 days until the new job starts, Scott!) Last night after dinner at a local pub, Kellee drove me back to the seminary, where I was spending the night in the temporary guest house. "Should I take you home, or do you want to see a little more of Alexandria?" she asked. "It really is home, isn't it," I said before answering the question.
There's no place like home.
Home for the holidays.
Home is where the heart is.
You can't go home again.
A man's home is his castle.
All of these sayings take on new shades of meaning as I contemplate the reality of leaving the only area I've ever lived in.
I'm heading home, but only for a little while longer. I'd like to think that Connecticut will always be my home, just as Darien will always be my hometown. But I wonder how long it will be before I start saying "I'm going to Mom's" like my brother does whenever he and his family head up to Connecticut?.
So tomorrow I begin finalizing the details of the move and update the final To Do list. Seeing the new apartment in person is much different than looking at a floor plan. On the one hand, I will take even less stuff to Virginia with me. On the other hand, I have a longer list of things I'll need to get once I'm moved. Do you know how long it's been since I've actually had a sofa, let alone a separate living room?
In 17 days I head back south. (That's 18 days until the new job starts, Scott!) Last night after dinner at a local pub, Kellee drove me back to the seminary, where I was spending the night in the temporary guest house. "Should I take you home, or do you want to see a little more of Alexandria?" she asked. "It really is home, isn't it," I said before answering the question.
There's no place like home.
Home for the holidays.
Home is where the heart is.
You can't go home again.
A man's home is his castle.
All of these sayings take on new shades of meaning as I contemplate the reality of leaving the only area I've ever lived in.
I'm heading home, but only for a little while longer. I'd like to think that Connecticut will always be my home, just as Darien will always be my hometown. But I wonder how long it will be before I start saying "I'm going to Mom's" like my brother does whenever he and his family head up to Connecticut?.
So tomorrow I begin finalizing the details of the move and update the final To Do list. Seeing the new apartment in person is much different than looking at a floor plan. On the one hand, I will take even less stuff to Virginia with me. On the other hand, I have a longer list of things I'll need to get once I'm moved. Do you know how long it's been since I've actually had a sofa, let alone a separate living room?
Monday, April 9, 2012
Three Weeks
Usually Easter Monday provides a moment of calm to recuperate after the frenzy of Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Even the local Starbucks is less crowded than usual this morning. But for me, today marks twenty-one days until the new job. How did it get from more than a month to three weeks so quickly?
Sorting and Packing
Notifications
Sorting and Packing
Visits with friends
Sorting and Packing
Farewell parties for other folks leaving the parish
Sorting and Packing
Holy Week
Lent got lost in the whole new job process. See the above list and add Interviews, Job Offer, and Acceptance to the top of it. So when Holy Week arrived, I figured it would offer me at least a small piece of Lent as we headed into Easter. Instead I found myself pretty much going through the motions as I continued to observe the world through the double lens of not here and not there yet.
Except for the Easter Vigil, which is my favorite celebration of the season, if not the whole year. It never ceases to touch me deeply in some way. This year, even with the double lens, or maybe because of it, the Vigil seemed to sum up the whole experience of the last 17 months, beginning in October 2010 with management notifying me of the elimination of my position at the Church Center.
And ending with a brand new job. Alleluia!
And now back to
Sorting and Packing
Closing Accounts
Sorting and Packing
Farewell gatherings with friends
Sorting and Packing
Handing off the parish web site
Sorting and Packing
Writing my sermon for the 29th...
Sorting and Packing
Notifications
Sorting and Packing
Visits with friends
Sorting and Packing
Farewell parties for other folks leaving the parish
Sorting and Packing
Holy Week
Lent got lost in the whole new job process. See the above list and add Interviews, Job Offer, and Acceptance to the top of it. So when Holy Week arrived, I figured it would offer me at least a small piece of Lent as we headed into Easter. Instead I found myself pretty much going through the motions as I continued to observe the world through the double lens of not here and not there yet.
Except for the Easter Vigil, which is my favorite celebration of the season, if not the whole year. It never ceases to touch me deeply in some way. This year, even with the double lens, or maybe because of it, the Vigil seemed to sum up the whole experience of the last 17 months, beginning in October 2010 with management notifying me of the elimination of my position at the Church Center.
And ending with a brand new job. Alleluia!
And now back to
Sorting and Packing
Closing Accounts
Sorting and Packing
Farewell gatherings with friends
Sorting and Packing
Handing off the parish web site
Sorting and Packing
Writing my sermon for the 29th...
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Twenty-Five Days
The boxes continue to pile up in front of the fireplace. Pretty soon I'll have to figure out where to start new stacks.
Five copy paper boxes contain books, and I don't think I have half the books packed yet. And that's after I've sorted through them and filled a couple of bags to donate to the library and others. As a reader, I can't just throw them away. But I don't need to take them all with me. Fortunately, a branch of the Alexandria Library is about the same distance from my new home as the Norwalk Public Library is from my current one.
Three archive boxes hold genealogy files, family photos, and other family history artifacts. The files are the most organized they've been since I started working on the family history over 30 years ago. In a large part that's due to the genealogy group at church. That's something else to look for once I get settled.
Yarn and crochet thread fill a 17 gallon plastic bin. Some is left over from past projects--prayer shawls, hats, scarves, mittens, Christmas presents--some is in new skeins. All of it anticipating new projects that will have to wait until Alexandria.
Some things, in addition to the donated books, will not make the trip to Virginia. A pile of things for Goodwill covers the table. Yet another garbage bag sits in the corner for more junk. Nor will the bed be going with me. It's time for a new one, which I won't buy until I move into the new apartment.
The here and the there entwined together in the same process. This is the twilight zone that I've written about before. It deepens as I pack because, at least for me, the process of packing begins journeys through time. There is something about touching an object that opens those pathways. Sense memory, like the smell of honeysuckle that always takes me back to childhood summers. Or the taste of hot chocolate that reminds me of Mrs. Piasecki, who made it for us after we shoveled her driveway in the winter.
Some are bittersweet. The crystal dragon was a gift from Brian, with whom I shared more than a third of my adult life. The inscription my father wrote in a book given to me not too long before he died. A picture of my grandmother the last time we brought her down from the nursing home for Christmas.
So in a very real way, I'm packing my memories to go with me to a place where I will have many new ones.
Five copy paper boxes contain books, and I don't think I have half the books packed yet. And that's after I've sorted through them and filled a couple of bags to donate to the library and others. As a reader, I can't just throw them away. But I don't need to take them all with me. Fortunately, a branch of the Alexandria Library is about the same distance from my new home as the Norwalk Public Library is from my current one.
Three archive boxes hold genealogy files, family photos, and other family history artifacts. The files are the most organized they've been since I started working on the family history over 30 years ago. In a large part that's due to the genealogy group at church. That's something else to look for once I get settled.
Yarn and crochet thread fill a 17 gallon plastic bin. Some is left over from past projects--prayer shawls, hats, scarves, mittens, Christmas presents--some is in new skeins. All of it anticipating new projects that will have to wait until Alexandria.
Some things, in addition to the donated books, will not make the trip to Virginia. A pile of things for Goodwill covers the table. Yet another garbage bag sits in the corner for more junk. Nor will the bed be going with me. It's time for a new one, which I won't buy until I move into the new apartment.
The here and the there entwined together in the same process. This is the twilight zone that I've written about before. It deepens as I pack because, at least for me, the process of packing begins journeys through time. There is something about touching an object that opens those pathways. Sense memory, like the smell of honeysuckle that always takes me back to childhood summers. Or the taste of hot chocolate that reminds me of Mrs. Piasecki, who made it for us after we shoveled her driveway in the winter.
Some are bittersweet. The crystal dragon was a gift from Brian, with whom I shared more than a third of my adult life. The inscription my father wrote in a book given to me not too long before he died. A picture of my grandmother the last time we brought her down from the nursing home for Christmas.
So in a very real way, I'm packing my memories to go with me to a place where I will have many new ones.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Twenty-Nine Days
During the 15 months of my unemployment I have made a deliberate effort to get out of the apartment almost every day. I volunteer one day a week at the church office. I meet our priest during her open table hours at Dunkin Donuts. And I spend a lot of time at the local Barnes and Nobles and Starbucks. Free Wifi is a wonderful thing.
Yesterday I went to the Rings End here in Norwalk to look at paint colors. Rings End was founded in my hometown of Darien and now has a number of store in the state. It's the first place I think of for lumber and other building supplies, even though I usually go to Home Depot. But for painting the new apartment, Rings End is the place to go because they carry Benjamin Moore paints exclusively, and that's the brand they use at the Seminary.
This is only the third time in my life that I've chosen colors for my living space. The first time was when I got my own room after sharing with my brother for almost ten years. I picked a deep yellow-gold. The second involved one of those Everything Is A Project times when Mom and I shifted rooms in the house after Dad died, and I'd separated from Brian. That time I selected a sandy yellow. At the moment I'm leaning toward a shade of yellow for my new kitchen. Do we detect a pattern here?
Some days, of course, there's already something on the schedule. Today after services we had the farewell celebration for the Whites. It was an emotional morning. Not only were the Whites moving, but I was experiencing another one of those lasts: the last time celebrating Palm Sunday as a member of Grace/Betania. Of course, it may be the last time Grace/Betania celebrates Palm Sunday in the current configuration as well. I went home and took a nap. I started out reading, but I ended up napping.
When I woke up a couple of hours later, I took one look at my apartment and decided I needed to get out. Empty boxes, packed boxes, piles of Goodwill donations, a half-filled trash bag for the dumpster, and a desk full of paperwork piles. There are some neat areas, but they're neat stacks of packed boxes. Time for a Starbucks break. Ice tea and a good book work wonders as a restorative.
Shortly, I'll go home, fix something simple for supper, sort through another drawer, pack a box, and work on a prayer shawl while watching some television. Well, there's something else to add to my list of things to look for when I get to Alexandria, a prayer shawl group...
Yesterday I went to the Rings End here in Norwalk to look at paint colors. Rings End was founded in my hometown of Darien and now has a number of store in the state. It's the first place I think of for lumber and other building supplies, even though I usually go to Home Depot. But for painting the new apartment, Rings End is the place to go because they carry Benjamin Moore paints exclusively, and that's the brand they use at the Seminary.
This is only the third time in my life that I've chosen colors for my living space. The first time was when I got my own room after sharing with my brother for almost ten years. I picked a deep yellow-gold. The second involved one of those Everything Is A Project times when Mom and I shifted rooms in the house after Dad died, and I'd separated from Brian. That time I selected a sandy yellow. At the moment I'm leaning toward a shade of yellow for my new kitchen. Do we detect a pattern here?
Some days, of course, there's already something on the schedule. Today after services we had the farewell celebration for the Whites. It was an emotional morning. Not only were the Whites moving, but I was experiencing another one of those lasts: the last time celebrating Palm Sunday as a member of Grace/Betania. Of course, it may be the last time Grace/Betania celebrates Palm Sunday in the current configuration as well. I went home and took a nap. I started out reading, but I ended up napping.
When I woke up a couple of hours later, I took one look at my apartment and decided I needed to get out. Empty boxes, packed boxes, piles of Goodwill donations, a half-filled trash bag for the dumpster, and a desk full of paperwork piles. There are some neat areas, but they're neat stacks of packed boxes. Time for a Starbucks break. Ice tea and a good book work wonders as a restorative.
Shortly, I'll go home, fix something simple for supper, sort through another drawer, pack a box, and work on a prayer shawl while watching some television. Well, there's something else to add to my list of things to look for when I get to Alexandria, a prayer shawl group...
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