Moving on out...

The movers came.  I haven't participated in a professional move as an adult, and I gotta say, it was BY FAR the best move yet. Over the last week we'd been making lame attempts at decluttering, dusting, and compacting some of our stuff.  It was just enough to remind me how flustered I get during a move.  Do I still want this stuff?  Can I bear to throw it away?  Is there a better place for it than the trash can?  How will I get it there?  This resulted in basically trashing the house- we removed all the 'stuff' from the spare room to leave Raoul enclosed in during moving day.

Monday morning, three GIANT dudes show up (like, duck through the doorway guys), they walk around the place, have a short conference in the truck and bring in heaps of boxes.  I went to the Science Center, since Matt was here and there wasn't much for him to do anyway.  I came home in the early afternoon to see the crew finishing up for the day, everything we owned in boxes.  They covered the floor in plastic to prevent tracking dirt, left aisles in the boxes and had an extra box for us to put our overnight stuff in.  During the day, Matt said they would ask/remind him about things he might like.  Will you need an alarm clock tomorrow?  Coffee maker? Allergy meds (so glad someone thought of this- the dust is killing my allergies)? The boxes were stacked in these comical towers (who puts two wardrobe boxes together?  They go higher than a door), probably because they were all stacking up to their own eye level.

Today the same guys came back, parked a big truck in front of the house, one guy doing inventory, one guy packing some last boxes, and the third guy hauling HUGE boxes out of the basement.  I'm really relieved someone will unload these too, because I could not move most of them, let alone put two on my back and haul them out.  The furniture was plastic wrapped, and the truck was densely packed.  Of course, having standard size boxes and copious packing material probably helps, but these guys clearly knew what they were doing.  They did the whole house in about 5 hours, including the basement and garage. Paper work was exchanged and we'll see our stuff in Seattle in a week or so. 

The cat is dealing with this remarkably well.  The movers did kinda scare him (big voices!  big feet!) so he mostly hung out under the bed in the spare room.  But once they left, he took a look around and was back to his usual self.  He did make the most surprised sound today when I let him out into the empty apartment, the same sound he makes when you sneak up and poke him.  Now he is hanging out with us while we do some cleaning and organizing of our remaining things. It gives me confidence that he'll weather the move ok.

Matt and Raoul leave Thursday morning, and will be at the new house Thursday afternoon. I'll be giving our car the bon voyage that afternoon, and will be staying with some friends while I do some more work at the Science Center.  It looks like I might be able to continue some occasional volunteer work with them after I leave, which is good since they keep suggesting other things I could do if I were around longer.  But, I have this exciting life to look forward to in Seattle!  Starting soon!