Last Day in Corvallis

Wednesday, April 17th was packing day. I got up earlier than usual to make sure everything was ready. I ate breakfast, got dressed, and then gathered up all the things I would be carrying with me as I drove to Carson City. Jasper watched carefully as I carried suitcases, bags, boxes, and my sleeping bag to my car. Around 8:30 I took Jasper outside for a walk down the street. As we were coming back, we watched an enormous truck come around the corner. The driver stopped, checked some papers, then hopped out--it was beginning!

 Packing was kind of a strange experience. A team of three men (along with two more who came later) methodically packed everything in my house. First I showed them what to pack and what to leave for my roommate. Then one mover went around with an inventory form putting numbered stickers on each piece of furniture. Each bookshelf, side table, and chair got a sticker, as did each leaf in the dining room table. Meanwhile the other movers unloaded piles of cardboard boxes, tape, and paper and began packing smaller items into boxes. They wrapped every item in paper and put it in a box. Each box got a label describing its contents and a numbered sticker. Some things, like clothes in my dresser drawers, they left in place, but most other things got packed up.

While this was going on, I alternated between watching, reading, knitting, and taking Jasper for short walks. While I was in the house, I moved from chair to chair, room to room as the movers packed. Ocasionally I would answer a question about whether something should be packed, or chat with the movers, but mostly they did their work while I tried to keep busy. About 3.5 hours after the packing started, it was time to load the truck. The movers carried each box and piece of furniture out to the giant moving truck, and within another half hour the house was empty. All that was left was Jasper's crate, my knitting bag, the houseplants that couldn't go through the California agricultural check station in the moving truck, and a couple doormats. After signing my name on a bunch of paperwork, the movers were gone.

Since I was staying one more night, I went out to my car and brought back in my clothes and sleeping bag. Then, since it was too weird to be in an empty house, I left to go downtown. I got lunch at a sandwich place, then wandered through the shops in downtown Corvallis. I picked up my thesis from B&J Bookbinding and bought some candles that look like succulents. Then I got tired of walking and decided to go back to the house. I spent an hour or so putting together a table for my roommate, then I drove back downtown to pick up the ring I bought myself as a graduation/finishing MS/getting a job present. Unfortunately, although the ring had been resized, it was still too big, so I left it there with the promise that they could have it ready by 10am the next day. Local businesses are wonderful!

Then I went back to the house again to take a shower and get ready for dinner with friends. My roommate came along, and we had a fantastic Thai curry dinner. The best part was getting to laugh and talk with some really wonderful friends :) It was a perfect way to spend my last night in Corvallis!

T-1 Day Until Moving Day

Moving day is tomorrow! The movers are coming bright and early in the morning to pack and load my stuff into the big moving truck. I'm pretty excited to see how this whole process works, since I've never moved like this before...Moving to Corvallis was actually my first big move. My family never moved while I was growing up, and I took basically only what I could fit into duffel bags with me to college. When I moved to Corvallis, my mom and brother drove a U-Haul down with me, so we did all the packing, loading, unloading, and unpacking.

Today I spent a good portion of the day wandering around my house trying to decide what to take with me in my car and what to send with the movers. The moving truck could take up to a week to arrive in Carson City, so I want to make sure I have everything I need with me to survive for a week without most of my stuff. I also tried to find things that have sentimental value, or would be a headache to replace if something happened to them. So far I have a decent-sized pile of important papers, toiletries clothes, things for Jasper, and random other things that I will pack into my car in the morning.

I also took a trip to the landfill today! This might not seem that exciting to most people, but I got pretty excited by the engineering and efficiency of it all. A steady stream of trucks, machinery, and people were moving in and out with loads of trash. I checked in at the scales and was given a card with prices. For household trash, there were enormous dumpsters placed at the bottom of a hill. A curved road led up to a large flat area above the dumpsters and there were low walls around the edge. I backed my car up to the wall, unloaded my trash, and tossed it over the wall and into the dumpster. Then I drove back out to the scales, paid the fee, and was out of there in less than 10 minutes.

The landfill was also a good reminder of how much stuff people produce and throw away. I try not to accumulate more than I need, I donate things I am no longer using, and I recycle when I can, but sometimes its easy to forget that things don't really disappear when you throw them away in the garbage can.