We made it; the 570 miles round trip from Seattle to Spokane and back to pack up and transport Ms. Laura and all her stuff from school. Finals are over and the summer is off to an early start for her. Last year I made this journey by myself after her freshman year at school. I remember arriving to to find her room looking as though she planned to live there for the summer; not a thing packed up, pictures and posters still on the wall and everything else in its place. Then, after a disastrous but valiant attempt to fit all the belongs into one car, we gave up and rented a small space at a local "lock and store" which of course required a se
cond trip to Spokane to pick up all the "left behinds" a month later (thank you, Denny).This time I was smarter and dragged Denny along with me; he is a master at fitting odd sized items into odder sized spaces and looks upon the experience as a challenge instead of a disaster. Despite my requests that she "be prepared" to leave this time around; there still was nothing done when we arrived (photos above show her room when we walked in the door
Thursday night) although her excuse was that she had no bags, boxes, or suitcases available to start the process. Plus she was stressed out with having to take 5 finals. Hmmmm.We did a bit of work on the room Thursday night but most of the madness we saved for Friday. I inquired about whose stuff belonged to who (she has a roommate and one might assume that items in common areas like the sink might have belonged to Alisa). Not. "No, Mom, all those headbands on the towel rack are mine." By Friday late morning, we had four suitcases packed to outrageous weight, half a dozen large plastic containers holding clothing/shoes (stored under her bed which when lifted up on cinder block stilts provides a wealth of space for enormous quantities of stuff), a dozen or so large plastic Hefty garbage bags with miscellany, a microwave, upright fan, 6 foot floor lamp, and a fish tank. Yes, a fish tank with two tropical fish named "Whiskers" and "Spotty", heavy as lead and which Laura had to tend all the way home sloshing about between her feet on the floor board of the car. Plus, she had 80 dollars of "flex money" to spend or lose so she stocked up on Luna and Cliff bars, nuts, beef jerky, chips and bottles of iced tea, sports drinks, and soda; all of which had to be hauled as well. Thank goodness for a friend named Chris who helped Denny and Laura with the heavy hauling from dorm room to car. I spent my time preparing stuff to be dragged off to keep them busy.
Did you know that Laura has a jumbo sized plastic storage bin with nothing but shoes inside? I wonder how many pairs that represents. No comment.
After all the packing and moving came the cleaning; the room had to pass inspection so we used a can of wet wipes on surfaces that hadn't been dusted in 9 months and a vacuum on the floor, sucking up all manner of hair pins, hair ties, confetti, and crispy bits of dried leaves from bouquets of roses accumulated through the year. The stuff on the floor leaves behind as much history of living as the stuff we hauled home. Needless to say, inspection went fine and we were on our way for the drive home by 2 PM. Laura and Denny traveled in one car (with the fish) and I whisked along I-90 with just my thoughts and my own choice in music, plus a Cliff bar and sports drink. No stops and we pulled in just before 7 PM.
Now all this stuff sits in the basement, partially unpacked. There's no place to put it all right now and it will take time for her to go through everything. Hopefully she will weed out a significant percentage of this stuff for the Goodwill truck. But, deep down, I know that we will find nooks and crannies to store all this stuff. Somewhere.
Gramma Thompson came for me the first year and other years she brought Aunt Pat. They were always dismayed that I'd not packed one thing and had things to carry back to Watertown like a year's worth of Time magazines. Car overloaded. I was never good at packing or sorting. Holds true today, almost 50 years later.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, I want to say - absolutely ridiculous (there are boxes at grocery stores, you came with suitcases, maybe don't come up to school until she's packed - sorry, Laura =), leave the stuff endure the consequences....). But I can't, not really. When I graduated from University of AZ, mom and Mary were driving back with me from Tucson to Houston (CSH had to get back to work in SF). They came to my apartment - NOTHING packed. Not a dormroom mind you, but an apartment WITH furniture (more than just a huge box of flip flops and a towel rack with head bands...) and a cat. WE even had an overnight stay in a booked hotel room with NO heat in December. They were saints to help me. But I have learned the value of packing - and do it well - but not like Queta I'm sure (and I practically have things packed a week in advance). I would like to comment on MMH's comment too. She packed up Shadow Lawn almost by herself and moved LOTS and LOTS of boxes, art, furniture, art, stuff and more art to a much smaller house. She can pack and move - I just don't think she likes it...so if she can avoid it - she does. I guess Laura avoided it too (she knew help was on the way...). =) Much love.
ReplyDeleteI remember leaving Santa Cruz and having to fit all of my belonging into a rental car. Elizabeth and I were driving back and her sister helped pack us up because I couldn't fit all in. She taught me the art of removing things from boxes and suitcases and stuffing things like linens into the smallest crevices. I have never seen someone pack so much into such a small space.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jeanne that being responsible for your stuff makes you have to make the hard decisions that really don't seem that hard in retrospect. I had to get rid of a number of things but now can't remember what they were.
We are so attached to our stuff!