*Happy Birthday, little brother!
I wish I could be there today. I love you! *
It's 4:30 P.M. and I couldn't be more stressed out.
We're taking a short break from moving. I have 6 friends in the kitchen eating a lunch of Breadrolls with Mette (raw meat) and smoking up a storm. I thought I'd escape from the chaos for a moment to type out a quick entry. I'm sitting indian style on the hardwood floor in our nearly empty livingroom. My body is sore.. my arms ache from lugging boxes.
So far our big moving day has been a series of errors and mild tragedies.
1. Our friend, Jeanette tells us last minute that we can not borrow her van to transport our boxes to the dock to be shipped to America. She has to use her van for work.
Which means we have now have to rent a moving van tomorrow in order to make it to the dock before the ship leaves. We have to travel to a town 3 hours from here. It's Sunday, so everything is closed.
2. Our friend, M. accidentally smashed into our friend, Bastians car when he was pulling in to park in front of our house. Bastian has a fancy sports car and was freaking out. He just bought this car two months ago...
3. THEN I set the kitchen on fire! I threw a few breadrolls in the oven for our guests.. I was called into the other room and I twisted the knob without looking. Then I exited the room. Instead of turning on the oven, I turned the knob for the stove top. There were papers piled up and they all went up in flame. Eric smelled it quickly and put out the fire before our entire house burnt down.
4. We're putting our belongings onto the curb and I had this hope of people coming to take our television, our stereo... It would go to new owners and I would see everyone stroll off happy.
no such luck, It just started to pour rain... I'm watching all our belongings get soaked and destroyed in the down pour.
Things are breaking, Friends are tripping, everywhere I turn I'm crashing into someone.. Everyone is hectic, or sad, or exhausted...
and we have only about 1/3rd of our belongings on the curb. It's going to be a LONG NIGHT.
C'est la Vie.
Yes, I snapped a few photos. Naturally, I have no time to upload and post them. I'll add the images to this entry tomorrow when I have a free moment again.
I have to return to the kitchen. Wish me luck.
NEW UPDATE - 7:35 A.M.
I felt disoriented when I woke up this morning. I stared up at the ceiling in confusion. I knew I was in my livingroom, but at first I thought I had fallen asleep on the sofa. Then I gazed around and saw that I was on the crappy guest bed mattress on the floor...with Eric sleeping beside me.
The entire room was empty.
I heard a terrible loud crunching and screeching sound coming from the street. It resonated through our flat and I made a face.
"What is that NOISE?"
But let me backtrack...
Things have improved since my last update yesterday afternoon.
The sun emerged from behind the dark clouds, Our friend Peter. called up his parents and asked them if we could borrow their van for our move. They agreed and showed up with an S.U.V. , It is significantly smaller than the last van. But it can fit the majority of our boxes. That saved us a lot of stress.
We called the girl that wanted to buy our bed last month. We told her "You can pick it up today"
"Oh I don't want it anymore", She said "My parents bought me a new bed at IKEA"
Great....
So we gave our 500 Euro bed to our good friend, K. He was so happy. He was sleeping on an old pull-out bed and couldn't afford a new one. His relatives came, disassembled it and lugged it away. I watched our bed exit the flat. We lost some money by waiting to sell our bed until the last minute instead of last month, but K's excited expression was priceless. I know it means a lot to him. The bed is going in good hands.
Slowly everything began to empty out and disappear...
and end up in boxes on the street...
Our friends were amazing, They pulled everything out. The combined man-power made things move a lot faster. People came in and took some things out of our flat. Here is a man removing our Washing machine...
"Thanks so much", he said before heading down the stairs with it. "I've been going to the laundromat for 3 years because I couldn't afford a washing machine of my own. This is really great!"
I felt good and wistful at the same time. There was another happy story though...
We have a cabinet that is filled with fancy glasses. They were handed down to Eric from his mother, who handed it down to him from her father. Some of the glasses date back to the early 1920's and worth a lot. We couldn't take it all with us... there was no space in the van.
So it all ended up in box to be put on the curb. I know that was painful for Eric...He could remember visiting his grandfather during his childhood and using those glasses. His Grandfather pulled them out for special occasions. All this history was going to end up in the trash.
But only 10 minutes later.. an older woman wandered over and peered in the box
"Oh my goodness...", she whispered, carefully lifting the glasses and peering at them "Oh my goodness...these are so beautiful..oh...oh...", She started piling them in her arms excitedly. Than she eventually just strolled away gleefully with the entire box. She looked as though she had won the lottery. I knew those glasses would be put to good use...
I excitedly ran upstairs and showed Eric this photo. He smiled.We finished moving at 10 P.M. and called it a night. We were exhausted. We hugged our friends goodbye and thanked them for all their help. Then we crashed...
Now I'm lying on this mattress...and listening to the loud destructive sounds on the street...
"What is that noise??"
Eric blinked open his eyes "They're picking up our trash. Their is a huge trash compactor that is eating up all our belongings with it's metal teeth..."
"I want to see.."
"It's better if you don't. You put some of your paintings out there..you might feel sad."
We just lay there together, listening.
"Most of the good stuff has probably been removed by our neighbors", Eric said.
Which is probably true. At one point there was a huge crowd of people pulling our tapes, television, electronics and belongings out of the boxes. It was free for all. What was left was most likely really only trash.
Now we have to take a shower and pack up our remaining boxes in the van.
There it is. Everything we have left in the world. We have a long ride ahead of us...Then we have to return to this flat. We have to begin clean the floors, walls and windows.
Tomorrow at 7 p.m. our landlord is coming to take the keys.
and that's...it.
*****
Thanks everyone that has left caring comments, encouraging words and shared their own experiences from moving. That was really comforting and appreciated. I can't respond to everyone personally right now because I have to log off. This is a hectic crazy point in my life.
But I just want you to know how much that means to me. Thank you.
*****
