IT'S OVER (THIS TIME IT'S A GOOD 'OVER')

I manage to get through all of the sorting and packing and take the last load of boxes up to my friends to store in her crawlspace. My landlord loads them into my van and then goes with me to unload them at the other end. There is no way I can pick up anything more than a couple of pounds in weight. My back is really dodgy.

Moving day arrives and I get up early and put my sheets in the wash. Then I set about packing up the rest of my bedding into big Rubbermaid containers. I pack the last of the bathroom stuff into a small suitcase. I carry a couple of lighter things out to my van and when I come around the corner back to my door, the young fellow who is going to help me move today is there. We introduce ourselves. He is alone. I ask him if he has help and he says yes, that his father-in-law is supposed to be here with the truck but he can't get an answer when he calls home. I don't know where he has come from but apparently not home. He tries calling again and leaves another message. We decide to load up all the stuff I am taking with me to my new place into my van while we wait. He gets stuck in. He's a really nice guy and we get along great, chatting away about all sorts of stuff.

An hour or so later he calls again and finally gets his wife. Soon his father-in-law arrives and they load my mattress and a couple of small pieces of furniture that is coming with me into the truck. We head over to Fort Langley to where I will be living and we unload everything. My friend thought we were coming in the afternoon and it's just after ten so she is scrambling to get painting stuff out of my bedroom. She spent the last two days painting it a pretty blue to cover up the dark green walls with the graffiti that her daughter had 'decorated' the room with.

We head back to the house, and the young guy tells me they have to go back to his place, for some reason. They take one load of the stuff I plan to garage sale to the barn and then leave saying they will be back in half an hour. I potter about, cleaning the place and putting my box-spring into a large mattress bag for storing. An hour or more goes by and they aren't back. I pop out to throw away some garbage and run into my landlady with another woman. This is the wife of the young guy who is helping me move. She has come to do some cleaning before they move their things in. I decide to go get some lunch as I am really hungry, having had nothing to eat so far today.

When I get back she is still cleaning and we get to chatting. She says her husband really likes me and that I remind him of a friend of theirs. We talk about what it's like living here; she wants to know if the road is noisy (yep) and where I put stuff in the kitchen. I tell her and she likes my way of organizing things so plans to copy it.

Time is going by, the guys are not returning and I am anxious to get to my new place and unpack, get my bed made, and settle in. I decide to leave. All that's left to move is the stuff in the little storage shed, a bookshelf, and my bed and dresser. Just as I am leaving, they arrive. I ask if he minds if I go, as there isn't much for me to do and he says he's fine with it. He tells me that, if my bookcase is for sale, he would like to buy it. I tell him it is. That means both big items are gone now as I wrote to the woman who came to see the red bookcase and told her she could have it for $130. Her husband came and got it last night.

I head back to my new place. It doesn't take too long to get my clothes unpacked and my bed made up. My friend pops her head in after an hour or so and is shocked to see how settled in I am already.

I put my mattress on top of the boxspring and mattress already in the room as I don't want to store it in the barn again. It got very damp when it was stored there over the spring and summer and I am afraid of it getting ruined. When I climb into bed, exhausted at the end of the day, I sink deep into the mattress. I guess the support the boxspring normally gives it is not there and that's why it's so soft. But it feels great and I sleep like a log.

It's now Friday and I just got back from a 'Mom's' group meeting. It was a nice way to spend the morning and as I sit here, I am where I couldn't wait to be a few days ago. It's over. The move is done. My stuff is sorted. I can relax for a few months without worrying about where to live. I can stay here at least until the beginning of August if I want to. Maybe longer. Maybe shorter if I decide to sail the Caribbean. I am seriously thinking about it.

But meanwhile, I got a call today from the agency. I am off the mountain and have been assigned to the Staging Area at BCIT, a local college in Burnaby.  There is no staging area in Surrey.  The woman who told me that didn't know what she was talking about.  And I go for my training, finally, on Sunday.