Days 7-5: Pack Up Your Life

I didn't write the last couple of days because I didn't have time to breath. Well, I had time to breath, but just about it. After taking everything from the attic and getting the skip emptied we needed to throw away lots of crap. The more crap we throw away the less crap we send over across the ocean to Winnipeg to sort out there. Well travelled crap is still crap.

We worked until late yesterday to get as much as possible ready. We needed to throw away everything we don't want to go to Winnipeg and make sure the stuff we need on our trip doesn't accidentaly get boxed and sent off in a boat. You know, like our passports. 

In the morning the packers came and started boxing everything. They went in and our and the door was left open a lot of the time so I had to lock the poor doggies in the back yard (with breakfast and water). They stood by the glass door and looked in, begging to come in. I eventually took their beds outside and they lay down to rest.

One of the packers asked me if we're waiting for my wife to come down. My reflex reply was "I don't have a wife, I have a husband, but yes." Years ago I would've avoided it, even by lying. But I decided a long time ago to stop cutting corners and this was it. I'm not going to pretend Miron is anything but my husband now that I have a son because what lesson will that teach him? We felt that they were a bit rude and cold throughout the day and if it's because we're a gay couple, so be it. I think they were just a bit lazy and rude for no reason other than being a bit lazy and rude, but who cares. 

Blake was very excited by the removal truck and kept running outside through the open door and insisting on being outside all the time, which meant I had to supervise him instead of giving the removers instructions. He got very agitated every time I chased him down the street and took him home and it was "one of those days" with lots of screams and tantrums. On top of it I walked into my former study to find Blake with a thick red marker after using the carpet, the walls,the shelves, the windowsill, the door and himself as canvas. As if we weren't stressed enough we (mostly Miron) now had to furiously clean the stains as best as we could. We're lucky as this doesn't happen often, but the thought "why on earth did I decide to have a kid" did cross my mind. Blake answered it for me with a kiss... Little devil.

Halfway through packing I realized I can't find my iPhone. I looked all over for it and then I realized that it must have been packed by mistake. Oh joy! I was gutted about it, but at least I was glad to see that Blake's iPod was accounted for on my desk. For a while anyway, it also disappeared as it was also accidentally packed. At least Blake himself wasn't accidentally packed and shipped to Winnipeg ahead of us. We bought Blake a new iPod on Amazon which will be here by Friday. There is no way I'm flying to Toronto for hours and driving to Winnipeg for days without an iPod to distract him. His current one was getting a bit old anyway with increasingly short battery life.

Another thing that bothered us was the realization that we sent over probably too many things. Many books and things we could've thrown out if we started sorting things out earlier. But we also know we had tons of stuff on our minds (and still do). Regardless, once the movers left for good we felt a bit crap. It turns out that packing up your entire life in one day is as much fun as trying to remove your eyeball out of your eye socket using nothing but toothpicks.

And then it dawned on me. It wasn't the fact that we sent too much stuff over or the fact that I won't see my iPhone for almost a month. It was the fact that this morning we woke up in our home and now it's an empty ghost house with lots of empty walls and floors. It's no longer our home. I was going on and on recently about how the fact that we were moving hasn't sunk in yet. Well, it sunk. Like the goddamn Titanic. 

After the movers left I went with Blake to pick up some dinner and I felt like crying. I'm not regretting the decision to move. I left several homes in the past both as a child and as an adult and moved into new homes. With time the old home becomes just that, your old home. You get settled in the new place and make it your own. As long as I'll be there with my family it's home. But it's still a bit of a shock.

No pictures since I have no iPhone, but I do have my Sony cameras and I will get a USB card reader tomorrow. For now, I need to get used to this empty somebody-else's house.

Mickey