As many of you know, I finished work in early October, so that I could spend more time with my packing. Needless to say, every minute of every hour of the approximately 22 days we (I) had was spent fitting all of our worldly possessions into the five duffel bags and four suitcases that accompanied us to Abu Dhabi.
The packing and purging process started off innocently enough; you always think you have more than enough time and more than enough space, when in fact neither of these things are true. For context, we moved out of a two-bedroom/two-bathroom apartment measuring less than 1,000 square feet with no additional off-site storage. How bad could it be?
The first week I accomplished a lot. I cleaned out all of our closets. Packed up clothes that had not been worn in years (or so I told myself), household items that seemed like good purchases at the time (Ball fresh herb keepers, I'm talking to you), and listed all of our furniture on Craigslist. Within days, the dining table and chairs and all of our bookcases were sold, and that Sunday we dropped our first car load of stuff at the Goodwill. I was on fire!
The second week, well, let's just say the pace slowed somewhat, but the packing started in earnest. Why is it that as soon as you open up cupboards, your belongings seem to multiply like Gremlins that just fell into water? In any event, by the time the next weekend rolled around, we had a second car load of donations and whose idea was it to throw a party that Saturday anyway?
In any event, by the time it came for us to pack up all of the belongings we could not bear to part with (artwork, photo albums, and instruments) and drive them to Georgia for storage and family farewells, I did not want to respond to another Craigslister, pack another duffel bag, or think about how we were going to finish packing before our flight to Abu Dhabi on the 27th.
We did have to say farewell to one member of our family; Miss Kitts. The duration of the flight here and the uncertain time in a hotel before moving into an apartment resulted in the decision for our feline friend to return to her roots in Colorado. She and I did an out and back to Colorado in one day, well, she only made it one way. We definitely miss her feisty personality and her grudging affection.
Our last night in our apartment we held an indoor yard sale. Sorry that I do not have any pictures, but picture the door of our apartment propped open, and a stream of our neighbors from the building came by and left with everything from our grocery cart and kitchen appliances to pool toys and stuffed animals. While I entered into this process thinking we did not have that many things, I finished knowing that I will think twice before making any and all future purchases, asking myself "Do you really need that fresh herb keeper?"
I am not quite ready to talk about my Craigslist experience and there is a good chance that I will never be. But next time I see you, ask me the story about the couch...
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