I'm a basket case today. It seems I've been working non-stop from 4:30 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. for two weeks straight, running between old houses and new, schlepping boxes, opening boxes, accessing phones in two places to stay atop the many things that go along with moving a residence. I should have at least a full night of sleep before I try to communicate again, but... hey, if I stop NOW, I may be catatonic for the entire weekend, so here we go! If you see a typo, a non-sequitor, or anything else weirder than usual with me, stack it up to sleep deprivation and a schedule that was designed by a very cruel taskmaster. (That would be me. No one else. I wouldn't work this hard or this relentlessly and maniacally for anyone else...)
My den and bedroom are in place. My living room is still stacked with about 15 boxes because until my mini-kitchen and cabinets are put in (next week or soon after), I have nowhere to put the stuff.
Jackie's kitchen, also, is in place. I hope she likes the way I set up her kitchen, but at least it's neat and tidy and she won't arrive from Maui at midnight tonight to a stack of 20 boxes! All three of her bedrooms are ready to complete, too. (They're all "organized" -- not put away, but the boxes and items are stacked against the walls so she can easily navigate as she puts together desks, tables, bunk beds, etc.) I wanted to do everything possible (that one person can do) in the time I had available during her seven day absence so that she didn't get home, walk in the door, and lose all the peace and serenity she has managed to procure while on vacation. Anything less than my best in this regard would have felt utterly negligent on my part. My sister is a work horse, day and night; the least I can do is try to make her work load a little less daunting!
The cats and dogs are settling in nicely. I've mowed the large yard -- half with a push mower and half with the riding lawnmower. (The riding lawnmower was inaccessible until I got a lot of stuff from the garage into Jackie's part of the house.) The riding lawnmower needs a tune-up in the worst way. It hiccuped and bucked and acted like an old man with emphysema the entire time. I had to go at a snail's pace to keep it from dying on me. I think it would have been faster to use the push mower, but the grass was so long that a push mower would have killed me... so I rode the mower slowly... slowly... slowly... It took forever.
Bobbie and Joel Bobstein sent me a home-made, computer-generated card that's cute as a button, along with a gift card for Lowe's, feeling sure I can put it to good use when it's time to order cabinets. Yup! Our realtor (Jackie's and mine) also gave us gift cards -- to Home Depot -- so we'll be grinning mightily (instead of scowling) when the time comes to go get the stuff we need to make this house into a warm, inviting home and sanctuary...
Sometime in August Jackie is going to throw a shindig to welcome friends to an "open house" at our new place. By then my half of the place should be in prime condition. (Hers already is, once things get put away.) It should be a lot of fun -- for her.
I am SO NOT a hostess or party-goer, but since it's at "our" place, I'm going to be in on the arrangements and "merriment." Jackie considers these types of events "fun." I consider them "semi-torture." Is it any wonder why we require separate living quarters?
Jackie loves a crowd -- the more, the merrier! I'm of the solitude and serenity sensibility: shy, retiring... hated my own birthday parties as a kid. I can do events -- I can function without looking too much like a deer caught in headlights... but believe me, "events" are not native to me. They are an acquired ability -- not a natural ability and nowhere near a passion. Rather, they make me want to hide under a rug...
...but all the rugs around here are tacked down (wall-to-wall carpeting), so I'll be stuck!
I'm already nervous about it.
But there will only be one... and I'll be a better person for it afterward, having faced my abject fear and sallied forth anyway! "That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger..."
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