The tao of moving

Posting will be sparse to non-existent for the next week. We're packing up this weekend and won't have internet access till the middle of next week in the new place.

Having a conversation with my father about moving the other day got me thinking about the way we think of moving. There's of course the saying that good friends are the ones who show up to help you move, and I've certainly had plenty of friends help me move in the past, so that's been borne out as far as I'm concerned.

But this move we'll be going solo. Just the four of us. Two adults and two teens are a pretty reasonable moving team - especially since we're hiring movers for the two specialty items - the pool table and the piano. I've even got my fingers crossed that the landlord calls tomorrow to say that they or the new tenants will take our washer and dryer off our hands. The new place comes with them (and they're better quality than the cheapie ones we bought while on a student budget) and if someone wants to take them off our hands, it's one less thing to move.

My dad and mom actually offered to drive 6 hours to come help us move, which of course would also likely involve sleeping on the floor and another 6 hour drive back, all probably within a couple of days. I love my mom and dad too much to take them up on such an offer. It was nice, but I wouldn't feel like a very good daughter if I agreed to something like that. I'm sure the four of us will do just fine.

But moving got me thinking about how moving and friends mix (or don't). We aren't having any friends help us this time. Mostly because I haven't asked. I already know that many of my friends are busy/on vacation this time of year. And some are just not the kind of friends who will help you move - they'll do all kinds of wonderful other things for you - but they don't even move themselves, let alone help friends move.

And sometimes I think I've got a moving-karma deficit. I feel like I've done more asking of friends to help move than I've done for friends. Not that I've ever said no to a friend who's asked for help, but I just don't think I've been asked as often as I've been the one asking. The last person I said I'd help moved changed the loading date to a day that I was out of town, so I couldn't even fulfill that promise, which I really regret. Perhaps I can be there for their next move...

So we'll be going solo. But we've booked the truck for an extended period because we knew this would be the case, so we don't have to knock ourselves out with a time limit. We're trying to be fairly zen about it, which makes it more than manageable I think. At least with a local move, you can always make a second trip if you feel the need to do so. Cross-continental moves are soooooo much harder!

One of the advantages of moving only a year after the last move is that you haven't accumulated a lot of junk. Don't get me wrong. We accumulated a lot of stuff - seems like we spent all last September and October buying crap for the house - but it hasn't hung around long enough to become junk yet, so the enormous garage sale or trip the the charity hasn't been a feature of this move.

I just find it interesting that moving brings up all kinds of thoughts and feelings that really don't surface at any other time. Maybe it's just the change that does so, or maybe there's a sense of identity associated with places that gets disrupted when you move. I'm not sure what exactly it is - I just know that moving is a really strange experience when you come right down to it.