moving update

The move to Jackson has been slow. I moved my furniture on Feb 25th as scheduled, but less things were packed than I had hoped (still, it was enough to horrify the movers). My mom spent 8 hours with me the day before helping me get ready for the big move. By the end of that, I was exhausted.

Friday morning, two men from Buck's Moving Services showed up to begin the load. We weren't very helpful to them and I mostly felt like I was in the way. Eventually, I just kind of gave up on helping. Unloading was more engaging as mom and I had her car to unload while the men worked on their truck and at the end we all pitched in. There was no longer this need for us to follow the order the lead mover had in mind for the unloading. Really, he pushed what he wanted us to unload the edge of his truck and we grabbed it.

My across the street neighbors have proven to be FABulous. They've helped me out in some way each weekend that I've been in town. Today, the husband even walked me in as two bad men are thought to be in my area. They escaped from prison in Lousianna but have since been spotted at the exit to my house. Apparently, my street was blocked for several days as officials search for them. There's much speculation on where they might be now, maybe still in Jackson, maybe not. My Tam Tam (we got back together last weekend) even came town with me the last two weekends. I wonder how long until they figure out our relationship. I wonder what they'll think of me then.

The packing and unpacking are going OH so slowly. I thought I would pack up everything this weekend and bring it over in my and Tammy's cars. My time at the Memphis VA has been extended another week so we just brought her car instead. We filled it and I still have plenty left. I hope it all fits next weekend. I am now amazed by how much I have, how much was stuffed in my closet. Most of what we brought down today was in my closet.

I borrowed the carpet shampooer from Dozier House because Tammy was going to clean my carpet this weekend but I have too much left for that to occur. Perhaps they'll let me keep it through next weekend as well? My aunt is scheduled to clean my apartment in 2 weeks. I'll drop my keys in the apartment's office and hope they find things to be well. There's so much to do. There are dead plants around the Jackson property that aren't mine but need to be removed. They didn't clean out the storage shed before I came. And I have a million boxes to go through in this unfamiliar place. At least I have my Tam?

April 16th looks like a good day for a house warming game day. You can all come over and see where I live, except I won't be unpacked :/

the day before

the morning before the move

















top shot- dining room; left: living room; left: kitchen- food on the move; right: the unruly bedroom














I worked my tail off today. I woke up at 7:30, an hour earlier than on previous days this week. I took care of needed phone calls and e-mails before I started packing, but still spent a good 11 hours packing + breaks. Short breaks. My mom helped for about 9 hours. blah. So, so tired. And to think that I put in about 25 hour of packing BEFORE today. I think I might be inspired to get rid of some more stuff.

that evening:
















above: the bedroom. It was the last room touched, the one with the least effort put into it.

left: my living room with many packed boxes but hopefully enough path room for furniture to be taken out.

below: the dining room


I am oh so tired. There are still things I should do-- pack a basket of refreshments for our Jackson arrival, pack some toiletries so I can spend the night there, move the give away box out of the aisle and check to make sure nothing else is on or blocking furniture that needs to go. But it will wait. Sleep and I must meet. Namaste.

monday morning

4 days to go. This is how things looked when I got up today.

living room:


dining room:
my kitchen table is in this (above) mess if you look hard enough. mostly, it's empty boxes. i do eventually need to get to that table to clean it off, or pack if you will.

packed boxes corner:


i need a new place to stack boxes now. this area has maxed it fullness to reason.

tammy packed most of my dishes yesterday. that was nice. james says he will come tomorrow to help. yea for friends!

packing, week 2

I decided on Thursday to focus on areas of the house instead of number of hours spent packing as the way to motivate me to work, work, work on packing. At that point, the living room/dining room became last week's goal areas.

Remember how my dining room looked in the beginning?




Here's that same living room 8 days later.


Some progress, right? That dining room piece-- yeah, no. Much, much more to go.



And last, the food "diminishing".


























It seems that I have a lot of food to go.

In other news, I cough until on the verge of vomiting. I think it's because of a blood pressure medication I'm on. Today is day 1 w/o the med to test my theory. God, I hope this cough goes away soon if the medication is the cause. Amen.

homeless in Jackson?

Today was trip 3 to Jackson to search for housing. Now that I have a move date and no where to go, I feel like I'm homeless in Jackson. What a way to connect with my clientele. haha.

Finding places to view was more difficult this time than in the past. I searched apartments.com because they get info from the Jackson Sun. I checked the Jackson Sun itself, craigslist, and connected with property management company Town and Country. They're the ones that had several listings in the community I like and were managing the house that I love, love. In the end, I had 2 appointments: 11 and 12.

My 11 o'clock called and said he couldn't meet me but his dad would show me the house. The house was fine, minus looking it belonged to an old woman (which it does). 3 bedrooms, all a decent size. Living room with gas fireplace, something like 3 outside storage sheds & a 2-car garage. Laundry room. Driving to the house made it look like the house is in the country, country. When you go out the other way, you're down the street from the city. Bird feeds out the wa-zoo and a bird bath. Enclosed porch. I do prefer this house to cherry grove apartments because of size.

My noon appointment stood me up and hasn't called to explain herself. wtf? And from a huge property mgmt company? surprising. Mom and I drove by one of the houses I was supposed to view and it definitely would have given house 1 a run for its money. I hope I don't have to go back a 4th time to look for something....

House 1 has a deposit on it from someone that probably won't be able to move in due to things beyond control. But he might. He's supposed to tell the landlord one way or the other on Monday. Holding my breath.....

My original packing goal was 3 hours a week in the midst of my hectic schedule. Thursday, it occurred to me that it makes more sense to divide my house by room instead of thinking of a hour commitment since i have no idea how long it will take to pack but it will surely be more than 20 hours (3 for 3 weeks, 10 when off). Thus, my goal suddenly became to pack up my living room and dining room by tomorrow. haha. I've made them messy as f_ck; packed is a different story.

I'm trying. There's so damn much to do. i still need to get my car fixed from when it was hit last month. I need to work extra hours so I can leave there with order. I want to get a gift for my employees, possibly customized. And then there'll be social commitments and expectations. Citizen K is visiting next weekend for vagina monologues. That thrills me. Also, I'm having lunch with a lady that says she got rid of her fibromyalgia. I'm hosting it as a Memphis Chronic Pain Sisters event. The Stone wants a get together before I leave. I want to take out the women that wrote my references to get the job. Bellydancing on Tuesdays, Yoga on Wednesdays, Salsa on Thursdays needs to start. Stuff, stuff, stuff. I think I have one vacation day earned. I need to take it.

accepting the new in life

Feb. 18- my last day in my current position :).

Feb 28th- my first day with VA.

Jan 31st- day 1 of packing, the day pictures were taken of my apartment.












I turned in my resignation today. Now, I should probably be packing instead of blogging, but here I am. Let's see how long it takes for my apartment to actually look like I'm planning to move.

They rented the house I love, love in Jackson so I'm going to skip out on Believe out Loud to go back to Jackson to view new houses. My mom is coming with. I need to call the property company to reserve a time.

Health: Ouch! But I've been quite productive this weekend despite the pain. I woke up every 2-3 hours as I slept Friday night so I got up around 7 or 8 on Saturday. I washed 4 loads, spent 2.5 hours cleaning, folded all of my waiting laundry, and ate breakfast by noon. Swoosh! I'm preparing myself to get back into yoga. I can tell several differences now that I'm "off", i.e., taken a multi-month break. (1) My breathing is more shallow and my doctor fuses at me when I go to see him due to inadequate breathing. (2) It takes more effort and concentration to breath deeply, do equal breathing, and also unequal breathing. Those exercises are no longer natural. (3) My mind won't shut up. Lately, it thinks too much about a certain someone which makes it even more difficult for me to get good rest. Before, I may have slept poorly but it wasn't because I couldn't get someone or even something off of my mind. Plus, I don't even know WHY those thoughts are there. With the yoga, my goal is to do 3 at home sessions, 30 minutes each, before I go back to class. I've done it twice for 30 minutes and lasted 20 today. I think someone going by my apartment would have thought I was receiving undesired anal sex. ouch! I don't know why it hurt so bad but eventually I gave up. In yoga, you stick your toe in the pool of pain; you don't jump in. I thought that maybe I pulled something.... In terms of my 2011 health goals, I'm doing a horrible job of working towards accomplishing them. My intention is to count my carbs and gradually drop them to a level appropriate for a diabetic. My reality is that I eat lots of high carbs food and generally forget to keep count.

I was lonely quite a bit last week. That sadness will probably come back but at this moment, I'm good. I have a new friend. We've been talking for a while on okcupid. I asked her what kind of success she's had on the site. She said she's made one friend and stupid me didn't realize she was talking about me! I followed up by asking questions about this friend. lol. Her message was a real pick me up. I'm tentatively scheduled to meet someone from there on Wednesday. I'm iffy on if I'm going to go. I think he's more about a relationship and/or sex than I am. My page clearly says I'm only recently single and don't want to get into anything now. (2) I'm leaving town in 6 weeks. What's the point? On the flip side, there's the curiosity. Cindi thinks he'll be hot because he's a body builder. I think he's a little skinny and young (25).

I've been going to church a bit this year. It feels good. Saturday, I went to Jacob's Well. It was nice. I respect what the minister is trying to do there. A few weeks before, I went to my cousin's church. Wow. Power. Also, I've been reading from a guidepost devotional several times each week. It's been a good start to the year.

Enough for now. I'm sure you're ready to stop reading if you didn't stop 100s of words ago.

Namaste.