Having Moved is like Having Written. You can kick your feet up onto your new Ikea table while sitting on your relatively new loveseat, have a look around, and realize that there is NOTHING to do. None of those pesky, normal “shoulds.” You don’t have to clean out any closets, ‘cause you just filled them. You don’t have to clean under the bed or refrigerator, because you already know there aren’t any dust bunnies. The freezer is stocked with identifiable food. You can knit and watch crap TV with a clear conscience, none of that niggling guilt.
Of course, I Haven’t Moved yet. Deep sigh. One of my closest friends yesterday despaired of me while we were on the phone. “I don’t know how it is that I can move my husband, my kid, and entire house full of stuff on ONE DAY, and it’s already taken you a week, and you’re not done?!”
Nope. I still have the bedroom (read: huge closet full of stuff I haven’t seen in years) and the hall closet (ditto). And my motions resemble those of a slug when I move, I’ve discovered. I don’t throw anything into a box. I pick up the glass snail I bought in Murano while I was with my gorgeous gay porn-star friend Brian-Mark (I met him on a bus-boat one afternoon and we fell into immediate friendship). I look at it, turning it in the light, remembering how we had found together the Snail Staircase in the back twists of labyrinthine Venice, and stood in that postage stamp square, looking up, wishing we could climb the scrolling steps, discussing the difference between the normal Italian word for snail (lumaca) with the Venetian dialect (bovolo). Then we hopped the vaporetto and went to Murano, the island of glass, where I bought this little glass creature in memory of our day.
Then I’ll put it in the box.
Then I’ll call my mother/sister/friend and put my feet up and talk about that time I bought the snail in Venice. Or I cruise a few blogs (only furniture left in the old place is the chair I write in and small TV table for the computer – this is the last day for internet connection). Or I grab my sister Christy who’s riding her bike by my apartment on her way to school and MAKE her come inside to chat.
I hate moving. If I could get my ass in gear, I’d be done today. Wish me non-snail like motions, okay? I need to be like the wind, like the cold, sharp air you feel on your face as the boat heads into the lagoon and toward the Lido….. Stop. I need to stop writing, stop fucking around, and get to it. I’ll be happy when I’m done, and that moment is within grasp. So that’s my day today. Tomorrow I’m pretty sure I lose internet service for a few days, so I’ll be offline, not checking email at all, so forgive a delay in response, please, and for now, enjoy this view (I’m not sure how they took this; the photographer’s back must have been pressed right into the wall of the house behind him. The staircase takes up most of the square, with a tight walkway around it):
Il bovolo:
I’ve done several moves the same way…don’t despair! eventualy it will end.
Then you can be all tucked up watching trashy TV and knitting something wonderful!
What an interesting life your lead!
Brian-Mark is a friend of yours …wow..
I’m always amazed that all the gay porn stars are so much better looking than the hetero’s I get stuck watching .
So jealous you’ve gotten to meet Greta face to face too…she’s so cool.
Good luck with the move !
Debbie in Ontario, Canada
An absolutely amazing photo! It made my day. Thanks for posting it.
Now get your rear in gear, girl! We’re all eager to see what your new place looks like Rachael-ized!
you are having trouble moving because you don’t have a strict deadline. a self-imposed one doesn’t cut it. having the internet cut-off might do the trick 😉
I agree with maryse. I finished knitting my step-dad’s bday present a week ago. Yet I couldn’t make it to the post office until Monday (his bday is Wednesday). Why? no deadline…mind you I am out on disability right now, so no pesky work to get in my way. Get your butt packin’ not parkin’!
Anywho, I especially liked that you met a porn-star named Brian-MArk on a bus-boat —lotsa hyphens makin’ me happy!!!!
I agree with maryse. I finished knitting my step-dad’s bday present a week ago. Yet I couldn’t make it to the post office until Monday (his bday is Wednesday). Why? no deadline…mind you I am out on disability right now, so no pesky work to get in my way.
Anywho, I especially liked that you met a porn-star named Brian-MArk on a bus-boat —lotsa hyphens makin’ me happy!!!!
sorry about the double post 🙁
Maybe it’s time to pack in hyperspeed and unpack in a leisurely “I remember when” way. Then, even though you are looking at lots of things to do, you are in your new space with the energy and enthusiasm that will bring to the project.
Good luck! PJ
Good luck with the packing. I like snails. They are underappreciated. When I lived in Alaska they were huge! Big, monster size green and black ones. Be a big slug and get things done in a big way. Don’t be an UK/London slug though. They like to climb up on the mornings milk bottles and eat flowers.
Your reaction to moving sounds like mine. I hat it! I guess that is what makes me move so slowly. The closest I ever came to personal violence was when I was moving. But even moving slowly, it will be over soon. Persevere. :^( And then, the relief! :^)
I am so not one to tell you to get to it. I’m, er…still unpacking FIVE YEARS after moving here. Hee! (Got my whole house still in storage, too. Sigh.)
I’m exactly the same way, Rachael. Luckily, I have a partner who is NOT. He’ll just put everything from a drawer, shelf, whatever, into a box and tape it up and move on to the next one. It totally bugs me, because I want to look at every little thing and then wrap it individually and then find the perfect spot in the perfect box for it — but if Bill wasn’t such a no-nonsense packer, we’d probably still be moving out of our first apartment. Just do it! Throw everything into boxes, get it over to the new place, and then unpack slowly and find a perfect spot for everything. (You have nothing to DO in your new place, remember?) xo
Or you could pack like I used to when I moved far too frequently and was single in the City–toss it rather than pack it! The last few years I lived in the City I got rid of so much stuff because I was always in search of the *perfect* apartment and it was too much trouble to lug lots of stuff around. Good luck my dear.
You can do it, you can do it, you can! [end of cheerleader voice] And if it’ll motivate you, I just posted the pic of Em and cones o’cashmere ~ and you can’t travel east to get you some until you finish moving, right!?
Oh to be in that finished moving category! Hope you’re able to implement some quick packing because I don’t want you to be away from blogland for too long! 🙂
I knew some guy in gradschool named Mark who later became a porn star. He morohed from a ganly Teenager into some puffed up gym bunny over the course of several years. I thin he looked better before the “transformation”!….
dearest rachel… I’m catching up on your life again…you are SO my sister! She is exactly the same way about doing things… especially moving or moreso for reorganizing. She actually is a bit of a ‘professional’ mover, having done so many times.
And yes! I cried during S&tC! I think there would have been a huge revolt had they not brought Carrie back to NYC.
back to the blog,
Cyn