Welcome home!

Well, your new home. Your first home outside of West Virginia in your entire life.

This won’t be long — there’s a ton to write about — because I’m actually about to go to bed. I’m going in tomorrow but it’s more of a “soft launch” because of the holiday. I just want to go in, spend some time, maybe find my desk, see a little bit of what I’ll do on Tuesday and get acquainted.

I am not homesick yet, but I miss home. I don’t know if it’s that I miss home or I miss everybody from home. I’m betting the latter.

Anyway, bedtime for me. But I’m here. I’ve made it. I’m in one piece. My back hurts … but I’m in one piece.

I’ll definitely update tomorrow with my first day under my belt.

Truth.

T-minus about 48 hours. The movers will be here Thursday. Predictably. I needed them Friday.

Things aren’t going well. They’re not going terribly either. They’re just going fast. They have no choice but to just go. It’s time for the next phase of life and it’s here. What seemed like an idea a month ago is actually here now.

I’m fine, I promise. Just drained. I’m tired in every single way a person possibly could be right now. But there’s a light at the end. I just have to keep moving closer toward it.

I read somewhere that the five most stressful things anybody can go through are:

1. Birth of a child (I’m clear here)
2. Moving (I’m ass-deep in that.)
3. Changing jobs (Monday’s coming. Quickly.)
4. Going through a divorce (… check.)
5. Death in the family (I’m clear for now. But with my luck, someone dies Saturday.)

I’ve completed 60 percent of this list in eight months. Who says I’m not an overachiever?

Comcastic!

It’s Comcastic!

And now … so am I.

The evil giant owns me. I hope the evil giant treats me well.

Marking it off the list. One more down. Many to go.

Getting this one done? I feel Comcastic.

Organized chaos

Today, at least thus far, I was able to mark off:

* Get electric, gas
* Get Verizon (for the phone/Internet)
* Order replacement part for BlackBerry because AT&T told me to take a ride last night when I tried to buy a new one. They said, essentially, “Discount? Ha. Full retail price, sucker.” I politely declined.

This afternoon, I’d like to mark off:

* Get me some cable (which may end up being for the Internets instead … Verizon may be marked off completely if they don’t have the DSL/Fiber. I don’t know why the computer wasn’t able to tell them that when I called. It just wasn’t.)
* Set a shut-off date for my Chucktown utilities and let my landlord know what day I’ll be officially outta here (that depends on the movers, who, oddly, have yet to call me.)
* Find out from a vet the process of tranq-ing Inky and Walter. Can’t wait. Those cats are gonna LOOOOOOOOVE me for this one.
* Change my address with all of the people that need it changed. Credit card companies get pissed when they can’t find you, I learned.
* Cancel my freaking gym membership. I’ve only been trying to mark this one off for two weeks. It just gets moved to “not that important.”

Tonight?

* Freaking take boxes downstairs so I feel like I’m making some sort of progress toward getting this house emptied. Kevin has to come this weekend to get the bedroom set back and then that’s one room completely empty.

I know … a blog post dedicated to all of the things I have to do. I think I did it as motivation. Once it’s out here, it’s really, actually out here. That way, T-Dub can ask me if I’m making progress. Cookie may come by and check on me and Paige will laugh at me and know that by the time she’s come along to check in, I’m probably taking a nap on the couch.

I feel like I’m getting somewhere, but getting nowhere at the same time. Having to work another five days, move the next day and start a new job the Monday after next makes you feel like an elephant has his foot planted right in your chest. I wish I didn’t have to work as long as I do, but it was unavoidable. Everything is exactly as it had to be in this case. Instead of getting a huge pile of work done at work (and getting my desk cleaned out in the process), I’m spending large portions of my day trying to get my new life set up 400 miles away.

It’s that feeling of “I can do a hundred things at once, but none of them very well.” That’s where I am right now. Right now, I’m juggling and I feel like at any minute, I’m going to lose sight of just one ball and everything’s going to come down at my feet and I’ll have to start over.

Eh, I’ll make it. I always do. If this is the most stressful thing I have to endure in my years, I’ll have it pretty easy. And in less than 10 days, this anticipation and buildup will be a memory and I’ll be well on my way to getting settled in to a new job, a new apartment and a new life altogether.

And I gotta figure out how to blog from the train … I bet there are good stories there.

Progress, not perfection

So, I tend to get overwhelmed sometimes when I have a giant project in front of me. The panic tends to last maybe 30 minutes at the most and then “logic” will kick in and I can find ways to break the task into smaller, more manageable chunks.

Need movers. Check. Got movers. They’re even coming to Charleston a day earlier than I hoped to pick up my stuff. And they pack! So if there’s anything I didn’t get to, they can help with it. I’ll have my stuff in Maryland an entire day before the drop-deadline.

Need to turn off utilities in Charleston. Oof. Not there yet.

Need to cancel my gym membership in Charleston. Ack. I swear, this afternoon.

Get car/renters insurance.

Well, now. That’s been quite the undertaking.

See, here’s the thing — I have the worst luck in the world. And as luck would have it, my policy in West Virginia ends about seven days before I move to Maryland. Isn’t that a fun little conundrum?

I tried pricing things online this morning and they all seem really high — maybe because rates in West Virginia are high. I’d like to snag the lower Maryland prices if I could, but I don’t know the mechanics of it. All morning, I’ve been filling out forms hoping some eager beaver insurance agent will call me and tell me that everything’s rainbows and lollipops and my premium’s not more than a car payment.

I’m trying to take care of one thing at a time so I don’t feel like this move is greater than I am. I’m still working until the very last minute at my current job which leaves nights spent going through stuff and splitting it into two piles: Goin’ to DC, Goin’ to Goodwill. Fortunately, after a full-scale inventory last night while waiting on my computer to try to fix itself, I don’t think this move is as overwhelming as I initially feared. I’ve really only been in the townhouse eight months, and it’s not humanly possible to amass a lot of crap during that period of time.

I think I’m just ready to get the next phase of my life under way. I’ve mostly handed the torch over at work and I’m already making lists of things I want to do at my new job. I don’t want to say I’ve totally checked out on West Virginia already, but I think I’m just eager. It’s like waiting for your birthday or Christmas, in a way. You can see the end in sight, but it doesn’t feel like time’s going any faster toward it.

But if I could just mark “insurance” off my list, I’d feel worlds better.