The Day After

My move is finished. There is only trash left in the apartment - well, and the vacuum which I need over there until I have finished cleaning - it is ready to clean up and be finished with completely. I only broke down once yesterday, and that was when I found Bella-cat's collar on the doorknob of the craft room. I got out of the apartment and sat in the car for a time. I miss my cat so much, and her absence is especially strong as the anniversary of her death approaches. This is not a post about death, though. This is a post about newness and getting new opportunities going for myself.

The house is full of boxes. Those boxes are full of stuff and need to be emptied. I am in lots of joint and tendon pain and am hobbling around from place to place and box to box. I am stuck in more overwhelm. It seems to be my constant state of being these days - overwhelm. 

I have to keep reminding myself that it is Sunday and I need to go to church to do my job this morning. I woke up very early (again) and will have been up about 7 hours before actually going to work. We have to figure out what my Sunday Schoolers will be doing next Sunday in the service. The little kids will be singing, but the big kids nixed that idea, so they are reading - they love the microphones!

I, on the other hand, am trying to take moment by moment and task by task. I do not have to report on Monday for jury duty. I have two Zoom meetings on Monday afternoon that I have to remember - an intern interview and a Monthly Music Therapy Meet. I also have to call the juror line again to see if they will need me on Tuesday. I have a week before my mom and sister arrive to visit and help me get some furniture and unpack things. I have almost moved the boxes to the side of the queen-sized bedroom enough to get the queen-sized bed in there. I need to do the same thing with the twin-sized bedroom for the twin-sized bed. They arrive next Saturday right before my mom and sister arrive. The next day, we will pick up a car for them to use as I have to go back to work and then they can go out shopping. I need to get some cash for them to use as they find some things for my house.

Oh, gracious. 

I am going to take some time today to go over the things that I have to do this week before my company comes. I am removing post-it notes from my computer as things get finished up. It is a nice feeling to get things done.

As I am unpacking, I am trying to think about being functional in the space that I have available. I don't want to put things in lots of different places - I want to put things where they will be used rather than just anywhere. The first thing that I am trying to figure out is where the bookshelves need to to. I want some down here by my desk - a place for all of my office supplies, laminator, laminating sheets, and projects in progress. I can fit the corner shelf unit in the corner here. That will give me space for lots of office supplies. The other bookshelves can go downstairs to the library to house my textbooks. I have lost an entire set of shelves someplace - I have three different colors of shelving - I'm not sure where the pieces to the cherry shelves ended up, but those are for the upstairs and kitchen area. I have finally put the trash cans in their locations - two in the office, two in the kitchen (recycling and trash in both locations). This has helped as I have been unpacking things. I can just put stuff away and trash it if I need to as I am unpacking. The trash collectors come on Thursday, and I should have enough trash this week to actually put the trash out for the first time!!

I brought all of the remaining instruments over and put them in my upstairs extra room. I am not sure what I am going to do with that room yet. At first, before I had really lived in this space, it was going to be the guest room and entertainment room. As I moved in, I quickly realized that there is only space for a bed - if I put in a bed, then the entertainment stuff and the exercise bike will have to go someplace else. So, I am not getting a bed for that room. I think I will eventually get a fold-out chair to use there, but that can wait. For the moment, I will put the instruments in there along with the Blu-Ray player and my bike.

Today's job is to put shelf paper in all the kitchen cabinets and then unpack the dishes. I am ready to use my stove and oven and dishwasher for the first time. If I can get the shelf paper on (something that my mom INSISTS on, by the way), then I can break down the boxes and arrange things the way I want them arranged. All of my decorative pieces are here now as well. I am debating where I will put various pictures and signs and tchotchkes that I have collected over the years. I know that the Star Wars stuff will go in the downstairs bathroom. The flowers will go in the upstairs bathroom. Other than that, I have no idea where I am going to put things. I have family pictures and crafts and things that my family members have painted, cross-stitched, and made for me. I have things that I have collected. I have things that I no longer want or need, so I will give them to others. I have a bunch of watercolors that I want to get framed. My grandmother enjoyed watercoloring. My sister and I are both learning to watercolor as well. My sister sends me her pictures, and I send her my own. I want to do some more watercoloring as soon as I get things arranged to the point where I can paint. I am almost to that point. Almost.

It is the 12th of December. There are 19 more days until the start of a new year. I am looking forward to my guests arriving. I am looking forward to the time after they leave before having to go back to work. I will have an entire week to work on my house without anyone else around. That is great luxury.

For now, it is time to move forward. Time to start unpacking. There you go.