Packing day 1

Dateline: Providence, Rhode Island

Yesterday started off much according to plan. Tim and Jess had arrived at our house around midnight, and we all woke up at about 7 AM. Matthew, Tim and I went to pick up the truck. It turns out that the 22-foot truck that Penske had promised us had indeed come in, but with some kind of damage that necessitated repairs. Since there were no other 22-foot trucks available, they offered us a free "upgrade" to a 26-footer. (These lengths refer to the size of the cargo space, not to the length of the entire truck, which is closer to 35 feet.) Having no choice we accepted it and crossed our fingers that we wouldn't get any worse mileage for it. I drove this monster home, looking down on Tim's tiny Camry from what seemed like the second story of a building. In fact, had we been able to park it a little closer to the house we could have placed things from our apartment onto its roof.

Not much to say about the packing process really. It's like a giant game of 3-dimensional Tetris--but I was never any good at Tetris, and my spatial reasoning is pretty poor. Jessica, luckily, is better at it. Between the 4 of us we managed to load the truck pretty beautifully: this stuff is going nowhere, and I don't expect any broken boxes. During the whole process our landlord/downstairs neighbor Ron was lurking in our apartment getting the dishwasher fixed and kind of staring at us move our stuff. We finished putting in the venetian blinds that we had removed from all the windows and swept up. The ferrets were caged (the houseplants, too: we put them all inside the larger ferret cage for easy transport, and I was happy not to have to leave any behind).

Allie (our upstairs neighbor; her fiance Max had left us a lovely "good luck" note on our doorstep) made us cornbread, and Tim made a final run to the All-Star Sandwich Bar, the best sandwich shop anywhere. So a quick lunch on the porch, then a nearly tearful goodbye as we drove off.

All this before 3. And then the second, more frustrating part of the day began.

Jessica and I took the car past the Legal Aid Bureau, where I turned in my keys, and got on I-90 to get out of Boston. (Goodbye, Boston!!!) I-90 is a toll road in Massachusetts, so we had to pay a couple bucks to use it, but the traffic was light and it was well worth it. We were in Providence at Tim and Jess's house by 4PM--but Jess had lost her housekeys and we couldn't get in! Tim and Matthew in the truck avoided the tolls (which would have been at least $10 for the truck) and got on I-93, promptly sticking them in the middle of a traffic jam. They arrived in Providence just before 5PM.

There was still a mess in the house, with many boxes but many piles. Plus we were already exhausted from the first part of the packing, which slowed our bodies a bit and slowed our minds considerably. The humidity had turned up outside and we were all pretty miserable. But we managed to pack a good portion of the stuff last night, and this morning we're hoping to finish packing and be on the road no later than noon.

Which reminds me: better get to it. Tim and Jess are already working, and I should wake Matthew up now.