We move in 3 days. THREE.
Are we packed and ready to go? No. Do I have the world's most poorly timed and inconvenient migraine that is slowing me down? Oh, yeah. Does this totally suck? You bet.
However, while I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by all there still is to do, I remember back to two years ago when we were packing up a huge 5-bedroom house to move into this 2-bedroom apartment, and how in the 2 or 3 days before the move, we were also still "not ready". And somehow, it all got done.
It will be the same this time. We actually have less to pack and move, we've done a good job of getting rid of nearly everything we don't want or can't use (except our stove/oven which won't fit in the new apartment and the renters who will be moving in here apparently already have one, so they don't want ours -- we're going to try and get a charitable organization to come and get it next week). We will have a few junk items to put out on the curb for pick-up, but not so many. I think we will need to go buy some extra cartons tomorrow, as we realized last night we probably don't have quite enough, but another 12 or 15 boxes ought to do it.
Happily, we were able to time this move with the Little Guy's spring school break, so this first week of the two-week break he'll be spending with his mom, and by the time he comes back with us we'll have moved and will have his space pretty well organized and comfy for him. He can just come back and settle into our new home. He's very excited about this move because it means we are going to start letting him take the bus to and from school alone (after Georges coaches him along for the first day or two) as the next step in preparing him for being more independent next year when he starts middle school. In fact, on Wednesday morning, Georges let him walk all the way to school from our place by himself for the very first time. I stood up on the balcony and watched him walk down the street to the top of the "big staircase" and then he was out of sight, and my heart just clenched.
Mostly, the thing I will miss about living here is our views. I haven't once taken them for granted in the two years we've lived here; we've always known this was a special, but temporary, gift in our lives, to be able to live in a place where you can look out a window and see a major monument so close by, or an expansive horizon where the light and colors shift minute-by-minute all day long. We're not the sort of people to take this kind of blessing for granted. And I've enjoyed being able to share these views with all of you.
From Sunday night until we-don't-know-when, I will not have Internet at home so I'm not sure when my next post might be. We have no idea if or when our Internet will be operational at our new place so we're just crossing our fingers and hoping for the best. Might be necessary to do a daily visit to some local café, just so I can check my email every day.
Next time I post, I'll be posting from the 9th arrondissement!
