Muttering and Moving

Happy Monday my lovelies and even more importantly, Happy Spring! (A few days late.)
It's been a little over a week since we moved in and the apartment is starting to look more like someone actually lives here and less like a storage unit every day. I suppose that’s the perk to my being unemployed at the moment. We don’t have internet at home yet and most likely won’t be getting it until next month, so my visits will be a bit sporadic. Right now I’m updating from the local coffee shop, sipping a coffee and eating a pastry. My next stops on the web are some company websites so I can begin job hunting in earnest. Most places apparently prefer you apply online instead of in person here, even the local non chain shops. It’s a bit weird.
Enough of the internet chatter though and on to telling you all about the move itself. I’ll begin by saying that the next time I plan to move more than 50 miles from my current location, I am paying someone to come haul my junk to the new place. We picked up the 16 foot truck on Tuesday and had friends and family over to help fill it with all of our worldly possessions. Either we have too many possessions, or the moving website underestimated how much furniture a real house would honestly have. Our moving truck, which was expected to pack up a 3 bedroom home, couldn’t fit the furniture and boxes from our 1 bedroom apartment. We ended up leaving behind quite a few pieces of furniture; our night stands, some bookshelves, office and kitchen chairs, etc and crammed as many boxes into mine and my friend’s cars as we could and still managed to stuff the truck to the gills. The husband had such a miserable time driving this truck that he would never volunteer to drive anything larger. We’ll definitely be using hired help next time.
Once we stuffed the truck and cleaned the apartment, the husband, the kitties and I spent the night before the move getting the worst sleep of our lives on an air mattress in our empty apartment. I need white noise when I sleep and we had absentmindedly packed our fans in the truck. The kitties were definitely wide awake all night long because all they wanted to do was jump on my head and play. I love them dearly, but when 4am came around and I had managed to snooze for only two hours, I had thoughts of leaving them in New Jersey. ;) With 4am, the husband’s brother and our friend came over and after one final assessment of the apartment we hopped into our vehicles and began our sojourn to the South.
About 5 miles into the drive, the husband and his brother realized the moving truck could not exceed 55 MPH and sent myself and our friend ahead. Even while driving at a steady 80+ MPH it took us 14 hours to get down here. We were hit with traffic, torrential rains, and wailing kitties in my back seat. A pot hole the size of Texas tried to eat our cars at the entrance to Hardees when we stopped to eat and let the kitties out of the carrier into the back seat for a bit. Once he and I got down here, set the kitties free in the 2nd bedroom and unpacked our cars there was nothing to do but wait for the guys in the moving truck to arrive.
They showed up 2 hours later. They were a steady 70 miles behind us for most of the trip, but once we hit the mountains of Southern Virginia at the very last exits on 77S before entering North Carolina there was torrential rain and the gap between us widened to 120 miles. They couldn’t exceed 35MPH without the truck feeling like it was going to slide right off the road. The husband informed me when he got out of the truck in our parking lot that driving through Southern Virginia in that truck was the scariest thing he’s ever done. It was also one of the soggiest, because when the rains hit, the boys had the good fortune of discovering that the truck’s cab leaks like a faucet.
Once they were out of the truck and dry things went smoothly. The 4 of us unloaded the truck until about midnight, relaxed and chatted until 3 am, slept and then finished unloading our stuff and deposited the truck at the rental place the next morning.
The husband started work last Monday, the boys left on Tuesday and I’ve been by myself keeping occupied by unpacking and reorganizing ever since. We were smart enough to get a 2 bedroom apartment this time and are using the 2nd bedroom as an office/art space. The art space is by far the most put together space in the place yet. I’ve already painted my side of the room a light green and am in the process of hanging shelves to display the things people have made me as well as my collected bric-a-brac. I should be able to get to making things within the next few days and I will be so happy to get back to it and be able to talk myself into giving unpacking a rest. My poor back will appreciate the break too, I’m sure.
Once I head back home today though, I’ll be setting up my altar space. I didn’t have the opportunity to do some before Ostara, but I celebrated the return of Spring just the same with time outdoors enjoying the sun and the flowers and of course, a chocolate rabbit who was devoured in mere minutes.
Did any of you celebrate? What have you been up to these past few weeks?