I have WAY too much stuff!

I am officially moved out of my apartment! Packing took many, many more hours than it should have. My dear friend Nicole helped me out until late Saturday night--or rather, early Sunday morning. Only a real friend will cradle your lovingly preserved college-era Snapple bottle at 2 am for a commemorative photo in an effort to help you ease the pain of tossing it into the recycle bin.


After she left, I continued the packing, and never did make it to bed. Of course, not every moment was spent efficiently. I did take a break to snap a photo of my kitty perched on a newly cleared closet shelf:


Around 10 am Sunday, my dad arrived with the U-Haul truck. I had suggested we get some help loading the boxes and furniture by hiring day laborers from outside Home Depot, but my dad was pretty confident we could handle it ourselves. After the first half dozen back-breaking trips, though, he agreed that we should seek assistance. Rodolfo and Francisco came to the rescue. For a mere hundred bucks, they took care of all the heavy lifting, and loaded the truck quite professionally.


Shockingly, my stuff barely fit. There were even a few items that wouldn't fit. And mind you, I'd rented the 17' truck. The PODS are only 16' long. So this was worrisome. Thankfully, the PODS are taller inside than the U-Haul, so there is actually more room. But once something is loaded in there, it is as good as gone. Say goodbye to it until you unload at the end of the trip. You'll see in a moment why this can be a problem.

With this transition being dragged out over the next three weeks, the issue of receiving mail is problematic. I cannot forward my mail to NC, because I do not have a place there yet. I cannot file a forwarding order using my parents' address, because I'll only be here 2 weeks and that's how long it takes to start receiving forwarded mail. The post office recommended that I put a hold on my mail for the next two weeks, and then pick it up right before I leave, meanwhile acquiring a post office box in Cary, to which I can then forward everything. It seems that to get a box, the post office requires two forms of identification...with matching addresses. This is not an easy requirement for me to fulfill--not only have I moved a lot lately, so nothing matches, but even if I had two that matched, I couldn't get to them, seeing as they are buried underneath mounds of stuff in the back of my POD.

Plan B was to forward my mail to my brother in NC, but he is in the process of interviewing for a position as a police officer in a city three hours from his current residence. Thus he could be moving shortly too. So I came up with Plan C: I will forward my mail to the ever dependable and ever helpful Nicole. Now it's just a matter of keeping my fingers crossed that the post office can get this right. The last time I filed a forwarding order, I never received a single piece of forwarded mail, and my old roommate kept having to send it to me.

So last night there was some pretty awesome thunder. Woke me up from a sound sleep, and my immediate thought was, "Wait for the shaking." The last time such a, well, thunderous sound awakened me it was the Northridge earthquake. Thankfully, this time it was just a storm. And today the air smelled SO good. You can't beat the smell of the desert after a rain. And the sky was gorgeous with all the dissipating clouds. It was still pretty warm, despite the rain, which is a good appetizer for NC.