62. June 30th, 2011 Picture.

MOVING!  Day 1.  The thought of typing up all the details of our move is giving me slight anxiety, I don't think I'll ever be able to see a U-Haul ever again and not break out in hives.  There is no reason that I need to pour over the inane details of our move, and also I think that if I have to relive it again in such detail I might die right here on the spot.  So!  That being said, I will just give you the highlights!

Stop numero uno.  Sidewalk.  This is a Southie institution, famous for their coffee, and I needed to close out my 5 years as a Southie resident with a large snickerdoodle iced.  Seriously, you'd think I was dying.  I am moving LESS THAN A MILE.

Good bye Sidewalk!  So long, farewell...

Off to my next stop, the North End to pick up Ratty and then subsequently Somerville to get our U-Haul and then BACK to the North End to START moving.  Sheesh, I'm tired already and the day legit just began.

So, here is where it gets good, and by good I mean terrifying.  Ratty wasn't *totally* done packing, though he was in really good shape, promise!  Okay, not really, I had heart palpitations walking through his place, but I couldn't TELL him that.  The psyche of someone moving is very very fragile.  You say the wrong thing and the person absolutely breaks down and cannot perform a simple function.  Maybe I'm just talking about me here but I was NOT taking any chances.  I couldn't tell Ratty that we were in tough shape because I'm pretty sure it would send us both into that 'I'm so overwhelmed I'm going to sit here and do nothing' phase.  

So, I helped Ratty pack, cleaned up around his place while he and our friend Bill moved couches into the U-Haul.  This process took approximately 2 hours and was absolutely horrible, or at least it LOOKED horrible - I was just watching.  Our movers didn't move couches due to liabilities, so we were left with moving them out on our own.  Bill was inheriting them for his man cave, plus he works around the corner, so he came over to help load them in our truck.  Getting those babies down 5 flights of North End stairs proved to be difficult.  Very very difficult.

So, of course while the boys are working away, I continued cleaning [aka throwing everything away because I was sure Ratty wouldn't miss it, if he even knew he owned it in the first place].  I also walked around and took photos of all the rooms, documenting this apartment we'd spent so much time in.  Ratty lived there for 5 years!  And I knew him before he moved there, I can't believe how long it's been, I met Ratty when I was 22 and he was just 26, gah, we were just wee little ones.

Bedroom:

Living room/kitchen:

Aren't North End apartments so glamorous?!

We break for photo ops:

I also decided that the easiest way to get all the couch cushions into the truck was to throw them out the window.  Obviously when no one was around.  I might have also done this with bags of clothes.  Hey, you become resourceful when there are 100 vertical steps between you and the truck!  

One last look down the street:

I swear, I am really excited to move!  Though I will miss sitting in this window and watching all the drunk college kids come home at 2am.

Ugh, I will NOT miss this airplane style bathroom.  It was awful.

Ratty saying goodbye:

Then, we went to my place and loaded up the truck.  I took zero photos because we were working quick like a bunny, er bunnies.  Plus I'd only lived there for 1.5 years so I had zero attachment to the place, which sounds heartless but it's true.  This leg was quick and easy due to the fact that I had already stacked everything downstairs, by the door, ready to go.  We have A LOT of stuff.  Like a lot.  The U-Haul place bumped us up from a 14' truck to a 17' one because they ran out of inventory, and thank GOD they did!  We barely squeezed it all in the big one, plus some stuff in my car, we would have been up a creek with the smaller one.  God, have I mentioned that next time I'm hiring people to pack and move everything for me?  Moving is for the birds.

As if this doesn't seem stressful enough, there was still more work to be done when we got to my mom's house!  My niece Devon was taking my super awesome pillow top bed, mainly because it was a full and Ratty's was a queen, and we were also taking a few new pieces my mom had acquired for us.  That required calling our neighbor and cousin Timmy to come over and help.  Jeez Louise.

After this we all went inside, poured some wine and settled in for a relaxing night.  We need it, tomorrow we unload it all.  Yipee!