10 days to pack it all up

What a gorgeous day today. The sun is shining and there is a breeze on the balcony. It is putting me in a fabulous mood. I am feeling a bit restless siting here and ready to go for a walk about town. I will do so after I finish posting this blog and dealing with the bucket of laundry I have on the go.

I was missing blogging for a while now but was unable to because of travel.

Recently Paul and I had to make a trip back to Canada for 10 days to pack up our shared house that was ending there. What a crazy time that was. 4 days to sell everything off the other 6 to put things to order and visit everyone we wanted to see. (I counted we saw over 50 people in 10 days)

Day 1 & 2 we stabilized at Erin's house, set a plan of attack and then went downtown to put up sale signs that I had Decorated in Belize and finished at Erin's. (glitter glue Guadalupe and peace signs on colorful paper)

Days 3, 4, 5 & 6 sell it all off, Halloween night and begin packing process.

While we were selling stuff off, we did an open house and a lot of people came top see us which was great, My cousin Erin also through a fab Halloween party and that took care of seeing more people we wanted to. We had a donation tin out at the party for Holy Cross School and managed to collect $100

Other than the first day we were there, I think Paul would agree there was not a time that neither of us were not dead tired from it all. luckily we did not get into fights over anything. You know how it can be when you are both faced with a high pressure situation and lack of sleep, it is easy to get snappy. That was a good test to our relationship.

It seems so surreal and far away now. Imagine 4 days to deal with 39 years of stuff and cold weather. I was not sure I could do it but we managed and had some good friends helping us through the process. Pretty much the only time I left the house was to go to get food from rice bowl or Sushi place. Not much time to stop and think about what should go where and what I could keep, so I was just prepared to let it all go. To help me do this I had to keep focused on the goal which was not being attached to my stuff and being able to turn it into a lap top and hopefully a new digital camera as well.

The last day of our sale, there was quite a lot of things left, and so I said just put it out on the street for people to take. Once we started doing thatthe vultures set in lol. People were quite happy to be getting such good deals, that helped make it easier. That night we were packing up,but had to stop as it was going in circles. We decided it would be best to have a fresh start in the morning. That meant delaying plans and not being able to go to my mom's house, but she understood and we promised we would make time to meet up with her and Norm.

Days 7 & 8 clearing out of the house, doctors visit, and off to the farm and back

Next day My cousin came with us to help us attack the packing situation. It looked like a bomb exploded in the packing room. Patrick also showed up to get a few things I was leaving for him. Lucky for that as we needed his help to get everything to Mississauga as our cherokee was too full. I was able to book in at the doc around the corner as well and we just kept checking with them as to when they were ready for me. I would have gone crazy if I had to sit in the waiting room.

While Paul was checking down the road about a change of address, he managed to find a lap top for me to look at. (we had some picked out from fliers my brother brought us but I was not really wanting to deal with too much choice) I went with Paul to sigh the change of address forms, and check out the lap top. I did not think it was the right one, but reminded him I wanted to get a cordless mouse across the road. We got to talking with the guy and he has a great deal on an acer with a built in web cam, it was perfect and so easy.

We managed to get cleared out of the house, and headed back to Erin's to unload before going to Paul's parents farm. It was nice to spend time there and get to see everyone. But the trip was short and we had to keep going. We drove back to Erin's the next night and saw Paul's brother and gf along the way. Was great to meet her and her son.

Day 9 Seeing everyone we could last minute, ohip office, and final packing

Last day in Canada we managed to meet up with my mom and Norm and Erin's mom and brother for lunch. Then pulled an all nighter with Erin re-packing us again to make it all fit. We had to leave for airport at 4 am.

Sadly I could not get my wooden folding laundry rack in (a very useful item here) but we managed ok overall.

Day 10 early flight back to the Island

 
Reading back over what I wrote it does not even really begin to describe the events thoughts and feelings of those 10 days. I am glad I was able to get something out though as I needed to release it. I wish he had a bit more time as I totally missed getting to walk around our neighborhood and china town. Will have to save that for another trip.