Thursday, September 18, 2008

Unpacking Day 3

On Tuesday when my moving guys showed up I naively asked them, "why are you scheduled for three days of unpacking"? For some reason, I had it in my mind that there would be absolutely nothing for them to do on the third day. My wild imagination envisioned that once the stuff was off the truck, I would have it pressed, dressed and neatly put away with in 48 hours. I am a complete idiot. The real tragedy was that when I asked the crew that question, they took it to mean that I wouldn't need them the third day, so they scheduled another move today. Double the whole "I am a complete idiot" statement. At least they managed to get all the boxes out of the garage and put the remainder of the 342 boxes in the "proper" room in the house. "Proper" as defined by the moving crew didn't mean the room that they box was labeled for, but seemingly means the room that they picked randomly when carrying the boxes. A cruel moving crew joke, perhaps??

I got up this morning and, given my prior delusions of grandeur, set myself a simple goal. I was going to have the entire kitchen unpacked and put away in time to prepare a delicious hot meal for my grateful and loving family. The reality? It is now 10:30 p.m. and there is still stuff on all of the kitchen counters. Dinner consisted of George making cup-o-noodle for the boys while I rushed off to the Elementary School Back-to-School night. The fact that I actually had to go to this event was lost on me until exactly 5:45 when Henry reminded me about it. It was on the calendar, it just didn't occur to me to jump over the 8 giant boxes located in front of it to check it this morning.

I had to be there by 5:30 and was in no hygienic state to attend. I have been unpacking all day. This does not require brushing your hair, wearing "cute" clothes or mascara. Hell, it almost doesn't require washing your face. I am not sure what kind of impression I made on the other 4th grade parents, but in keeping with the title of this blog - - "why dwell??? - - if they can't accept me in the worst of it - - what kind of friends would they make anyway?

In the end, while I didn't technically achieve my daily goal - - I can proudly say that there are no actual boxes left in the kitchen. I am making headway. I haven't even ventured downstairs to the basement today and do not plan to. I know that there are about 20 unpacked boxes down there - - but if I can't actually see them, I can blissfully pretend that they aren't there for now. Perhaps if I wish it hard enough, the shoemakers elves might visit in the night and magically put everything away.

And finally, I have forbidden myself that I will never again purchase any of the following items: coffee cups, wooden spoons or chopsticks. I heard the other day that 60% of San Francisco's population is Chinese. Based on my existing stock of the aforementioned items, I can comfortably host a coffee morning for all of them at once and we would have plenty of cups and chopsticks to go around.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wendy: I remember that feeling of opening a box...of my OWN stuff...anticipating the wonderful prize inside the layers of paper, only to find half of a set of salt/pepper shakers or some old picture frame with a model in it. Your description gave me a good laugh! Welcome home. I'm glad to have you back on this side of the pond. Now if we could only get you to the right coast :-)

Unknown said...

I forgot to sign my comment..
Karen Bellezza :-)