Moving...

UGH! The sheer bane of my existence! I loathe moving almost as I loathe ignorance. Alas, I'm currently moving...

As a kid, we only moved 3 times and although I was not responsible for any of the packing or moving since I was so little at the time, I remember disliking it because all my stuff was in boxes and I wasn't allowed into it. Before I started Kindergarten, we moved from an apartment in Colerain Township where I had to share a room with my nearly 3 year old brother to College Hill so I could attend Cincinnati Public Schools (obviously that was when the District was really highly thought of!). I also had my own, huge room there. That was the brief moment I tried to be an ultra girlie-girl and EVERYTHING was PINK...that didn't last long and it never happened again and yet, I was stuck with all that pink stuff until we moved again. Then we moved from that apartment to a HOUSE just a few minutes drive from the apartment, and still in College Hill so that my mother could start her business. That was the summer after 3rd grade. It was June. I distinctly remember because my mother was off at another dog show and Russell & I had to stay with Grandma Wissell for the weekend while Dad and his brother, sister-in-law and their sons moved all our stuff from the apartment to the house....the couch and chair would not fit up the narrow stairwell so for a long time, our "living room" was in my mother's shop instead of upstairs until we could by a new couch that would go up the stairs.

In college, it seemed all I did was move. In August for 5 years, I moved into my room for the year (MAJOR moving). Then in November, I took quite a bit with me and "moved out" for our 6 week Winter Break so I could go home and work and earn money (minor move). Then in January, it was moving back--again, minor move. Then I left for a week for Spring Break...no big deal there at all--coming or going. Then in June, I moved EVERYTHING out of my room, a good portion usually going into storage in the building I lived or worked in so that I could go home for the summer and work(MAJOR move). Just thinking about all that moving has exhausted me!

Then in March of 2000, I moved out of my mother's house and into my own first apartment in Westwood--2 bedrooms...by myself...that was a major move and I hardly had any help, but I also didn't have a bed, appliances, kitchen stuff, or hardly anything else...mainly clothes and a dresser...no furniture hardly at all.  Then after a year and a half of uninspiring apartment living, when I moved into a house in Saylor Park in 2002, with a roommate, I had accumulated a bit more and while that was a major move, I had a little more help. The pain was when the roommate started having and doing crazy roommate issues, I moved again...4 or 5 months later, I moved into a tiny one bedroom apartment in College Hill behind where Dad and my brother were living...it was so small and my stuff was so packed in there! I was only there about 6 months and then, because Russell moved out, Dad was starting to need more assistance on a daily basis (including meals cooked for him), and I was over there more than at my apartment and was in between jobs, I moved in with my Dad. A roommate situation of a different kind...not the easiest situation in the world, but I'm glad I did it in the long run.

Now that Dad's been gone a little over 2 years now, his "estate" is getting settled, Medicaid (AKA the masked organization of lies) put in a claim against the estate, therefore the part owner of the house (my brother) took a temporary loan out to pay them half of what they said the house is worth (measly $44,000--so Russ paid them off to the tune of $22K), and since the City wants the property and will no longer look bad by forcing out a disabled, sickly man and his caretaker daughter, they are purchasing the property from my greedy brother who never wanted it in the first place...which forces me out into the world with next to NO compensation for being forced out of my home, nor any compensation for taking care of my father for 8+ years. No, it's totally not fair, but I'm *not* going to mull on it--I refuse to...it's not worth it, I can't fight it and even if I did, I would never win....therefore, I'm moving on....

Fortunately a good friend of mine is opening her home to me (THANKS *H*!!!!!) and we will be roomies...well, me, her and her adorable yet hyper, young mixed breed Brendel! While living together, we are both planning on getting our finances back on track and figure out our next career moves while trying to save up some money. So I am in the process of packing and moving, yet again. It's tedious and tiresome. Yes, I'm getting rid of some things...but I'm now 35 and I've accumulated a lot over those years...it's a lot to go through...not to mention that I have some of Dad's stuff that I still haven't gone through and/or am not ready to let go of yet...and this move is a bit more complicated than every other move I've done. H lives in a tiny Cape Cod, which is--for the most part--completely furnished! So I'm not just moving all my stuff to her place, I'm putting a bunch of stuff in storage and taking some stuff to her house...so I'm needing to figure out what's going where, why and when...and, by the way, did I mention, I'm supposedly supposed to be out of the house by March 31st! (AY CARUMBA!) So now I'm getting down to the wire, only about 2 weeks to go and I'm not even close to being done--though I am more than half way!  I need to clear out some boxes before I can get too much more done...I'm already tripping over them now! And I've not even started on the basement...hope it warms up a bit before the end of the month! I am looking forward to the change...not the move...

Fortunately I am taking a couple personal days later this month AND the last week of the month is officially SPRING BREAK so I will have help and time to wrap things up in the last minute....**Wish me luck!**