I just washed black newspaper ink off of my hands, having packed up all my breakable artwork, heirlooms (mostly teacups), etc. someone said to me last week, “you must have this [packing/moving] down by now.” to which I laughed and said that I’m a nervous wreck when I move. which is entirely true…at some point the enormity of the task just overwhelms me.
but I have picked up a few tricks: I can pack fragile things – esp. dishes – without a second thought. I know how to guess whether a box is going to be too heavy for me as I pack it, and when to switch from paper to sweaters in a box.
my life for the last 10 years can be understood as a series of moves…consider this an addendum to the “timeline”:
August 1992: moved from the house I’d lived in since 1982 to Seward Hall, UPS – a four-person room. left at the end of the school year.
May 1993: moved my gear into a 4(5?) bedroom house on S. Oakes St. I spent two months at home before I moved in myself in late July or early August. this dwelling became known as the Hell House. left when our lease ran out.
May 1994: moved into a 2-bedroom house on N. 11th St., on the same lot as my landlady. cute little place, if a little close to her kids & dog. left as part of a divorce dispute (hers), plus some additional craziness.
August (September?) 1994: moved into a 2-bedroom duplex on N. Washington St.; the landlady and her aged mother lived downstairs. very small kitchen, no living room to speak of. left after the 2nd year of our lease.
August 1996: moved into a studio on N. K St., in an old house broken into three apartments. bowed floor, miniature kitchen, some of the windows never closed. but it had a built-in bookshelf (eventually). left at the end of my lease.
August 1997: moved into a 1-bedroom apartment into a carved-up old house on N. Sheridan. beautiful exterior, but I can’t say enough bad things about this apartment. broke the lease.
February 1998: moved into a 2-bedroom townhouse on Division. the Grey Gables. there were some weird problems in the basement shortly before we left, but otherwise it was the best place I’ve ever rented. Tom lived across the courtyard for a year, too. we only left because the landlady had decided to sell the unit.
February (January?) 2000: moved into a 2-bedroom house on E. 62nd. horrid little house, neighbors with huge dogs and noisy kids. left at the end of our lease.
January 2001: moved to Lakewood – a 2-bedroom duplex. bland, bland, bland. horrible radio interference.
except for the last two moves, they can all be described as an enormous circle/spiral around the north part of Tacoma.