The Beginning

And so begins the next chapter. Last week, Matthew and I drove down to VA with a couple of suitcases and set up shop in our very empty new apartment. It's a nicer place than we have been living, which hopefully will help us transition to more grown-up lifestyles. Hopefully it will also mean that we can live comfortably even once there are three of us sharing the space.

For the first couple of days, we focused on getting our bearings and taking care of business. A few trips to the leasing office (they couldn't find our keys and had to make us new ones), a couple of trips to the DMV in Leesburg to get the new Mazda registered and Matthew licensed, and a couple of shopping trips so that we'd have something to sleep on and eat while waiting for the truck to arrive. Unfortunately, they were driving through the Midwest during one of the many midwest snowstorms this winter and so they didn't arrive until Thursday morning (two days after us). I think pregnant women should never be made to sleep on the floor... it's really not quite fair to our oddly shaped bodies.

Thursday morning, we got a call from the movers letting us know that they had come already, but then left right away because the entrance to the apartment complex is too narrow for the truck to make the turn. Go figure. Fortunately, they were able to call a shuttle truck within an hour so that they could make the delivery. After a little chat with the owner of the truck (an interesting guy, to say the least), Matthew sent me to the grocery store to stock the fridge while the other movers unloaded everything.

By the time I returned, they were just about finished, so I put away the groceries and started unpacking the kitchen. Now I had been at work while they had packed our belongings in Ann Arbor, so had not witnessed the whole process. Needless to say, I was surprised and amused to find all of our kitchen things packed so... carefully. Some of my favorite finds (all wrapped carefully in packing paper):

• An empty box of ziploc bags
  
• A single bamboo skewer
• A pen
• Hot water kettle (with water still in it)
  

Of course, there were some things that I wish I could have been there to wrap up first... like the open bag of sugar that spilled all over everything that shared its box. And the box of cornstarch, which made even more of a mess in its box. I'm still wondering what happened to our 8th salad plate, which has mysteriously disappeared. Nothing else seemed to be (significantly) damaged or missing, though, so I guess we made it through all right.

When last I left Matthew, our balcony was stuffed full of empty cardboard boxes and the packing paper that had been in them (although he says that it's now taken care of). Most of the furniture was arranged as well. Now he just gets to finish arranging books and pictures and other decorative things at his leisure. And then when I get there I'll probably rearrange everything 15 times just to give me something to do. Sigh.

But it is finished. Matthew has started his new job and I am (for all intents and purposes) living out of a suitcase while waiting for my chance to go... home.