And on the 7th Day

I don’t even know how to pick up where I left off. It has been years. In 7 days God made the world and I was barely able to get our new roommate packed up in 7 days. That’s how much stuff was inside her townhome.

Monday I scooped her up to look at the latest apartment. “It’s fine” she said, even though it was 150 square feet larger, she could smoke inside of it and it was completely clean, updated and on budget. I spent Monday night quickly doing her app.

Tuesday - at lunch I brought T and S over to view it and start visualizing what would fit inside of it so we could adjust what we previously thought would fit and pivot to what would actually make sense with the new configuration. We confirmed the garage location. I spoke to the company running her application. I hand delivered her income statement. I ran to Home Depot to buy boxes. Our new roommate told me she was going to swing by her townhome the next morning for some urgent unnecessary task. I was instantly in knots. I didn’t want her there while we were throwing out the items she wanted to throw. In conversation she has already backtracked on a few of them and I didn’t want her to have the chance to do it in person.

Wednesday - I met the movers over at the townhome at 8. I told them she was no longer moving, that we didn’t have an apartment yet, but all of the packing and loading of the pod was still a go, as was all the junk removal. I looked around and was once again overcome by the feeling of being smothered by STUFF and realized I had no where near enough boxes. Or tape. So I went back to Home Depot. Then I started packing boxes because I couldn’t just sit there. My Mom came over to help me. Half way through the day the POD was full but we were no where near done. I started frantically calling to get a 2nd one, and they guys switched to junk removal mode. Of course my phone died so I brought it to a neighbors house to charge while I finished packing. We all realized we needed a whole 2nd day and I booked the movers for the next day. Finally ready to go home I was out of gas. At the gas station my phone was charged enough to deliver messages including the one that she got the apartment.

Thursday - 8 am I emailed the apartment asking to move in that day. I met the movers back at 8:30 as well as the mitigation crew who was packing up the basement and SURPRISE the contractor working on the bid for the insurance claim showed unannounced. I wasn’t nice to him. I scared him. He apologized a lot of times and offered to come back another day. No way, I told him. Its been 4 months since the fire and it should be more embarrassing that you don’t have a bid done yet than you didn’t call me. Do the work, just call me next time. The pod was switched out at 12 and by 1:00 the moving truck was loaded and the boys were ready for lunch and then the drive to her apartment. I called our new roommate and asked that she meet us over there to sign the lease. The move was done by 2:45 and I told them they could go load the Pod, I needed to get T and go to Comcast.

Comcast. I had an appointment, but I was still there over an hour. We needed to disentangle her services from ours to move them. There were long stories and equipment plans and obviously T was there desperately needing the bathroom which they didn’t have and meanwhile the movers were calling me with questions and my phone completely died and I used the comcast desk phone to call them back and try and guide them. The plan was for me to be there with them. Not to spend all afternoon at Comcast. We were finished at 5:30 and they told me they transferred all service effectively immediately. Which I didn’t want. But I wasn’t about to start over at that point.. I was panicked over time and I had to get out and help the movers finish. I figured if our new roommate couldn’t want TV for a few days so what.

T and I went back to the townhome. By7:30 it was empty and it was dark and we were all exhausted and done. When we got home surprisingly, the cable was still working.

Friday - I worked until noon and then went to the apartment to get everything unpacked and placed. By supper time it was in good shape and I was pleased with the progress. We met S at home for supper (frozen pizza) and then we scooped up our new roommate to go buy a TV at Sams.

Saturday - I pre-shopped TV stands for her (she couldn’t just keep her 65” on the floor) and it went fast. I found a good one. I cruised home to get her and she was asleep. Ok. So I filled boxes and boxes with her kitchen and pantry overstock and brought it to her apartment. When I got home she was up and T had prepped her. She was dressed, teeth were in and she was ready. We went to HomeGoods, she didn’ t like my choice but saw another one instead, S met us over there and we got it moved in to the apartment right away.

As we were setting up furniture she and T were exploring.

“Grandma, come over here”

“I can’t. There is this huge bag of garbage in the way.” (It’s the way she says it. So vicious for no reason. I moved you in. There is a bag of garbage in the hallway. There are 150 positive things you can say and you had to choose the mean one. )

Anyway, moving furniture is stressful. I don’t appreciate the negativity and I go out the the car so I can grab the folding table I was planning to put in the dining room to give her more counter space. As soon as I left she took the opportunity to complain about me to S and she didn’t need that table and she didn’t want all the stuff moved and blah blah blah rudeness. S was pissed. And when he told me I shut down. Completely. I was exhausted. I had coordinated a zillion things. I had packed and moved and unpacked everything she owns and she didn’t have a word to say about it.

Sunday - I rested. I did nothing.

Monday - I let the apartment people know about her Wednesday furniture delivery, asked about installing another safety grab bar in the bathroom, and made sure they had out info for emergency contact. They said yes they had our info and our roommate was there with them. When I followed up about the bathroom safety she said she couldn’t share that with me because I wasn’t the leaseholder but I was welcome to talk directly with my roommate if I wanted more info.

Oh. Ok. I see. Gladly. Happy to step aside. I’m done. Let me know if you need me. You’re welcome to move the rest of your shit yourself.

She later told S that she was able to get 4 boxes moved and she did fall on her butt once and then down to her pack so she is in quite a bit of pain.

Tuesday night we had plans and when I got home I saw our new roommate scurrying back downstairs. She must have thought it was S but when she learned it was just me and T she had nothing to say. Not one word was said about the Wednesday move. I told her when her couch would be delivered and left it at that.

For like the 5th time she brought up the phone being disconnected. LISTEN. ENOUGH ABOUT THE DAMN PHONE. You’re lucky it’s just the phone and not your cable TV. I had to get your services transferred so you could move. The fact that we have cable TV is a total fluke. Also, you never learned the number anyway so the furniture store only has my number forcing me to me in the middle of all of this even though I am clearly not the leaseholder.