The last 24 hours in the US, for a while anyway - Part 1

My last 24 hours in the US were more or less mayhem. There's just no other way to describe it.

After the storage movers were at the house from 930 am until 7pm Thursday, I was pretty convinced that there was a lot of stuff still in the house, but it wouldn't take too long to get it all out. Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Friday I spent a half-day at work, getting home around 2pm. This was really the true beginning of the madness. My neighbor came over to take about 80% of what was left - foodwise - in the kitchen, which was a very good thing. Then her husband and son helped me move the previously blogged about 73 pound box into my car. After that, it was off to the vet for the cats' tick and tapeworm treatments and the final completion of the critical paperwork which, if completed correctly, was going to let my cats come home with DH and me - the entire point of my remaining in the US for the last 6 months.

Right after I dropped the cats off at home, I went straight to the post office to mail my three boxes, then back home again to fill up the car with trash for the dump. I was able to fit in one big trash haul before the dump closed at 8. From there, I really began packing in earnest, actually closing suitcases and starting to consolidate all the remaining stuff in the house to smaller and smaller areas. I continued sorting and packing and whatnot until about midnight, when I was simply too tired to stand anymore.

My dad arrived at about 8am the next morning in a big 12 person van with all the seats removed. I had barely woken up when he got there, and I don't think that I fully appreciated the amount of work we had in front of us. We loaded up the van for one big trip to the Salvation Army around the corner. When we got there at 910am, we were shocked to learn that not only did they not open until 10am (ridiculous) they absolutely under no circumstances would accept any donations until then. Our goal had been to get on the road by 10, and with a van full of donations, we couldn't fill it with the few things that I was giving to my dad to take to Jersey (bed, couch, and TV) until it was empty.

We ran back home and filled up my rental with the stuff that I needed to get to the dump (yes, yet another trash haul) and somehow by the time we'd filled my car, it was 10am - so Dad was off to the Salvation Army with the donations and I was off to the dump with a carload of trash. We met back at the house about 30 minutes later to fill up the van with all the stuff I was giving him, plus my 3 suitcases and two cats, which had been locked in the master bedroom closet at this point. This whole process took about an hour, maneuvering and shoving all that crap into the car - not to mention just getting the heavy stuff in there with a morbidly obese 60 year old man and an out of shape 100-something pound girl doing all the heavy lifting. We finally left the house about noon, about an hour later than we had intended, and still had to return the rental car and the stupid Comcast digital cable box. We were on the highway heading to Jersey at about 1230pm - a full 1.5 hrs later than planned.