Hiya,
So even though I haven’t
started my year abroad yet, I am traveling. To be more specific – as of late –
I’ve been doing a special breed of traveling in which you carry large pieces of
furniture along with you… I think the colloquial term for this phenomenon is
“moving.” Every story has a beginning and this, friends, is mine.
Thursday 15 May 2014 at 7:30am
My eyes opened to white walls
and early morning sunlight streaming though my window. All my index cards had
finally been taken down; my little room in my river falls apartment no longer
bore my signature... The room no longer felt like it was mine, despite the
clutter scattered about the floor. This made it easier to carry out the
morning’s tasks.
As soon as I had managed to
throw on my clothes, I began carrying everything down to the living room. A
large wooden desk, two dressers, an office chair, countless boxes, and my
mattress – all I had left to do was dismantle my bedframe.
The wooden, Wal-mart-bought,
bedframe was never meant to be disassembled. Screws were bent, and boards were
splintered, but after about an hour of fussing with it I was able to get it
split into several more manageable pieces.
I was packing up the remainder
of my kitchen supplies when my mother arrived with a large U-Haul van. The two
of us were able to get my moped and all of my things loaded into the van in
less than an hour. Then we were on the road. It was really fantastic to take
that long drive with mom; the two of us have such a good time.
As it would turn out, my
mother was buying a house the following morning, and so getting my things out
of my place was only phase 1 to the whole operation. We eventually made it back
to Berlin (the one in Wisconsin), where I was greeted by our loving Sammy.
Sammy is the only dog I have
ever known to actually cry with joy. Of course she always barks when we get
home, but whenever I come home for the first time after a long time away she
actually cries with excitement. Much jumping, licking, petting, and overall
merriment is guaranteed to ensue.
The next morning, we were up
early for the final walk through. I instantly fell in love with the three
bedroom two bathroom flat. There were wood floors in the kitchen and dining
room, quotes painted on the walls and my bedroom was yellow! Really it doesn’t
get too much better than that. Unfortunately, the flat is on the second floor
and the balcony has this ugly blue carpet on it. But hey, no place is perfect.
All the same, I was thrilled
with my mother’s choice. So in no time we were off signing papers. Now my mom
is no stranger to home purchasing. However, she was amazed by how quickly she
was able to get through the paperwork. In almost no time, the house was ours
and now the fun could begin.
My mom’s car as well as the
van were stuffed with the first wave of things. So the two of us began hauling
everything up to the second floor. We had just about gotten her car empty when
Tom and his friend Taylor arrived with their respective vehicles.
Taylor’s truck had our couches
and some of the other living room furniture. Between Tom Taylor and myself we
were able to make quick work of the things the boys had brought, and soon moved
on to unpacking the van which my mother and I had filled the day before.
When everything was unloaded,
Taylor ran off to an appointment in Oshkosh and my family rode back to Berlin
to re-load the van. Tom drove separately, but this gave my mom and me some
additional bonding time which we used to sing oldies. My mother couldn’t sing
on key to save her life, but she never lets that stop her. I think it’s one of
her most endearing qualities.
We got to the Berlin House
about the same time as Tom, and the three of us began loading things from her
bedroom into the van. Some families watch movies, others have family game
night, my family “moves house” as a group activity. We’re professionals at it. And
as a result, I can’t think of the last time the three of us had so much fun.
The best part was probably
when we were trying to get my mother’s queen sized mattress in the back of the
van. Needless to say, the mattress wouldn’t fit though the door, and it didn’t
exactly fit in the body of the van either…The three of us took twenty minutes
lifting up the mattress, holding it there, pushing on it, pulling on it, trying
to bend it, switching places, and repeating the process. By the time we finally
got the stupid thing in there, we all couldn’t stop laughing.
With the mattress and several
other items now packed in the van, my mother and I returned to the new house
while Tom waited for his friends to show up. Mom was getting kinda tired by
this point, and so I insisted on carrying up most of the heavy things myself.
Consequentially, this made me fairly tired and cranky.
So by the time I began trying
to repair my destroyed bedframe, I wasn’t exactly in a people mood. However, it
was around this time that the cavalry arrived. Now when I say cavalry I mean
almost all of Tom’s guy friends. The crew was armed with pickup trucks and
minivans full of extra furniture and boxes. With this small army of guys in
their late teens, we were able to systematically unload the fleet of vehicles
in less than an hour. I don’t know if we’ve ever moved quite so much in quite
as short of a period of time, but I also don’t think that we’ve ever had that
much man-power at our disposal.
The boys tore out of our new
parking lot creating a cacophony of loud engines, country music and the low vibrations
of subwoofers – all in pursuit of their grand reward: Buffalo Wild Wings. This
left my mother and me to fend for ourselves. There were countless boxes to
unpack, and more furniture to arrange than my tired limbs wanted to acknowledge.
It was going to be a long night, but the worst of it had passed. We survived,
probably one of the most exhausting and most fun moves of our lives.
Cheers!
-- Anth
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