The goodbyes started with my hairdresser. Jenny has been cutting my hair for over a decade (and lately, coloring it as well). I always walk out looking and feeling great, and I'll certainly miss that - but I'll miss more our conversations about marriage, children, faith, the state of the nation and region - those sharings that made us not just service provider and client but friends.
When I got teary that afternoon, I realized it was only the beginning. I could be excited about my upcoming life change, not having any second thoughts, and still feel the loss of familiar places and loving friends.
"Last Halloween to hand out treats to my neighbors' children... Last Christmas in this house... Last time I'll shop at this Safeway... Last dinner at this family Thai restaurant... Last dog walk with Hershey in our neighborhood... Last day in this office with these great colleagues... Last Sunday church service..."
Friends invited us to dinner one last time, and our church blessed us and our RV before we set out. Lots of people pressed us to keep in touch. Neighbors said they'd miss us. The wonders of modern technology make staying connected easier than ever in history - but it's still not the same as seeing people on your street, in your grocery store, at your child's school, out at a restaurant.
But if we thought the goodbyes were hard, getting packed out of our house after 23 years was much harder! When we first looked around, everything more or less in place, we thought, "Okay, this is doable!" Which it was - just not in the few days we had allotted. As we opened closets and pulled trunks out of basement corners, we realized just how much we needed to take care of. Our two daughters had organized many of their personal belongings over the Christmas holidays at home - but there were still four large boxes to pack and ship to Madeline at her apartment, several bins to pack and trek to storage for Isabel, and boxes and bags of outgrown clothing to donate.
There were also three floors of furniture to dispose of. Three college graduates moving into the area for their first jobs took an apartment's worth of furniture, and a charitable organization was to pick up the rest. We were due to move out on a Saturday, and the donation van arrived on Friday - only to inform us they couldn't do stairs, and they couldn't accept this item or that item, and ultimately to leave with only two bookcases.
I had been giving away smaller items all week on the front sidewalk, so I added notices about the furniture, and the last few pieces went directly onto the street:
Meanwhile, the landlord had scheduled remodeling work to begin on Monday, based on our original planned Saturday departure. By Tuesday, everything seemed to be in disarray:
It seemed we would never be done!
But with a couple of almost sleepless nights, our gracious neighbor's driveway and guest bedroom, 40+ trash bags, and multiple, multiple trips to Goodwill and the storage unit, we finally emptied the house.
It was Thursday - five days after our original schedule to be out of the house, four days after our plan to depart Virginia. We had a wedding to attend in Austin in six days. Time to hit the road, but not in the leisurely manner we had hoped for!
Coming up: Five days and five states...
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