Not quite a Nomad

I've been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a while.  My biggest problem has been "what's my subject?  What do I have enough on to blog about?"  Well, I imagine it will morph into something different, but right now, my life is consumed with a certain topic.  So that's where I'm starting.

I'm calling it " A moving experience".  Because I move.  A lot.  Maybe not as often as some people, but I move a lot.  More than I'd like.  But, that's the reality of my life.  I counted that I have lived in 22 places in my life.  That averages a move every 2 and a half years.  Of course, the times actually vary, but that is a lot of moving.   Moving is omnipresent in my life. 

This last move was precipitated by our landlady deciding to sell our rental house.  We'd lived there for over 4 years. We planned to live there a few more.  We had a plan as to what our next move would be, and in the preparation for that, we'd cull, downsize, etc... We ended up moving basically everything, because we didn't have time sort. That will be coming now, as we settle into this new place.  But moving it all wasn't in the game plan.  And, realistically, I know, it's probably going to be years before we put our hands on some of it again.  Which is annoying.  But, we are busy people and don't have the luxury of the time to pull it out at our leisure and deal with it.  So, it will sit there, taunting us.

We have the goal that our next move will be our last move.  We have a specific plan in mind, and it will probably take us a few years to put all those pieces into place.  Already we're excited about the plan, and we do have the luxury of the time to make the plan the way we want it.  It's probably going to be pushed out longer than we originally wanted, because, darn it, we can't get our heads around moving again in the original time line. 

We moved across the street this time.  Literally, across the street.  I have talked to so many people who tell me that they've had a very similar experience. They say "it will be your hardest move".  In some ways, yes.  We hand carried or hand-trucked most of the stuff.  Carrying furniture across the street does not equal a fun time.  I had times when I had some fragile items, didn't have a good box for them, so I just walked across the street with them and put them away.  Saves on boxes, let me tell you.  We did load up cars and/or back of the pick up and drive from our old driveway to our new driveway.   One morning, at the new place, I needed jeans for work.  My dresser had not yet been moved to the new place.  We'd done laundry, there was a pile to be sorted, I was sure there must be a pair in there.  There was not.  I had to walk across the street to get clothes to wear to work that day.  Talk about a bizarre reality! 

So, in less than a month, we moved.  We couldn't get started right away in the new place, because some repairs needed to be done and the cleaning hadn't happened.  This started the down-ward stress spiral.  By the last day, I'm sure both Nick's and my stress levels were off the charts.  I had points during the move when I thought I'd never been that tired in my life.  We both still had to go to work everyday. We also had plans on some weekends that we couldn't change.  So, we did what we could.  Moving consumes your life.  At least, it does ours.  We, as a family, discussed moving a couple of summers ago.  We found a cute house, the landlords really liked us, we could have moved then (with a bit more leisure, and under our own terms), but had a big trip planned that summer.  Not only is moving time cosuming, it's expensive.  We opted to stay put, stick with the "original plan".  Hindsight is 20/20, eh?  We basically made the judgment not to move then because of its 'life consuming" aspect.  We enjoyed our vacation that summer.   We weren't exhausted.  Life was good.  Ah, the good days. 

But, we feel comfortable here, in our new home.  Yes, we have a very long way to go.  Yesterday was the first day that I could really get into the meat of putting things away.  Just the tip of the iceberg, but it's a good start.  And, as the Fates would have it, Nick was stymied in his efforts by the pickup deciding to require copious amounts of attention.  I told him it was something he needed to deal with,  unavoidable.  I know we've discussed that we have "time" to do this on our own schedule, but there are things we need to accomplish more rapidly.  None of wants to be feeling like we're still in transition for a long period. 

Do I have any sage advice about moving?  Maybe a little.  I'm not going to claim to be an expert, just a very frequent mover.  Not quite a nomad.