Friday

I had a grand plan of documenting the fantastic growing pile of boxes through photos but at some point after Friday (which was, I am well aware, five whole days ago now) I cleverly packed away my camera so this is all you get. Try to visualize, though, if you will, a total of seven of those little plastic blue ones plus six of those smaller brown cardboard ones, plus that one enormous cardboard meanie, plus a couple oddly shaped extras, and you'll have an idea of what we took to Posti yesterday. I also wish I had a photo of the expression on the guy at the counter's face as he added it all up. Those of you who wish to guess at the final cost (the actual retail price without going over) are welcome to do so, but I'll give you a hint: it was about one-fifth the worth of the actual goods inside. Which is actually a good argument for shipping (i.e. burning oil) rather than replacing (i.e. filling landfill).
Between then and now we had a two-day long marathon of a garage sale at our house, through which we availed ourselves of the great majority of our worldly possessions (read: Mr. O's bachelor furniture, my espresso machine, one nice lamp and a pile of junk), avoiding both the aforementioned environmental crimes and providing us with fuzzy feelings all over to think of our old things in happy new homes. Luckily we supplemented our bargain-basementing with a heavy dose of nightlife, which meant that by the time Monday rolled around I was right shattered and ready for a nice relaxing day off. And so I started packing the rest of our stuff to move out Tuesday.
Tuesday was the really busy day, starting at 10 with a trip to the cafe for a latte (no espresso machine!) in the pouring rain. Mr. O went to get the truck and we loaded up the dregs of our sale to take to the recycling centre, which also takes broken appliances, etc. If I wasn't moving away, I would have spent some serious time rummaging around in there, but as it was I had to live vicariously through the guys who snatched up Mr. O's abandoned crates of records (I know) like sea gulls on an ice cream cone. Then we came back for the load bound for Canada and spent two hours at Posti filling in customs forms and watching the staff throw our boxes around (did I mention that I ROCK at packing?). Then it was back for the rest of the furniture, some of which went to a friend and some came to stay at the place we're living now – so we have another two weeks with our own bed, washing machine, and coffee table. Uncanny, really.

I can't remember the last time I was this tired. But we arrived at our temporary home safe and sound last night, nestled between the cheap&good Italian place and the bowling alley. Phew.