As I mentioned in my last post, upon moving in we had quite a bit of work cut out for us. I remember going to bed the night we moved in and thinking: ‘Are we ever going to get this place put together??’ Well, after giving ourselves a day to refresh and sightsee with Aaron’s dad, we grit our teeth—and dove in. Then, little by little, like a 1,000 piece jigsaw, we began piecing this crazy puzzle together.
I’ll pick back up where I left off in a minute. First, to introduce you to somebody…His name is Einstein. He is Aaron’s cat. I can’t totally call him mine, but I will claim him as my step-cat. Let me provide you with a little profile of this guy...
Color: Black with white paws and a white belly (like he’s wearing a tux)
Traits: Smart (sometimes), mischievous (especially when he has his crazy eyes on)
Likes: Eating plants, having his belly rubbed, bunny-kicking his stuffed mouse, sitting on oddly shaped items, and being within a foot of you at all times.
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| I call this his owl position |
Dislikes: Traveling, getting squirted with the squirt bottle (when he eats plants)
Even though he did totally devour the flowers I brought home from the farmer’s market this past Friday, and he once knocked the cord out of my computer while I was typing some really important job stuff, I can’t help but love the little guy. Since I am still on the job hunt, it has just been Einstein and me manning down the fort at home. Therefore, we keep each other company during the day while Aaron is at work. In fact, since he has kind of become my lazy motivator I like to call him my “Mews”. Yes, I know it’s cheesy…but also clever, you have to admit.
Alright. Picking up where we left off.
10. When starting over, any tiny bit of progress is worth celebrating.
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| Before |
One of the trickiest things was just figuring out how to move our stuff into place when there just wasn’t that much space to begin with. Boxes were stored on and under the dining room table, on the deck, in the closets—just to get them out of the way. Slowly but surely, though, we began to see signs of progress. The succession kind of happened like this: The family room was the first to get put in place, just to have somewhere to sit down—oh, and so we actually had a place to eat. Next, the kitchen—make-shift self-assembled pantry and all. Then, after one weekend of hard work and lots of brainstorming on space-saving techniques, our bedroom came together. Finally, after a productive few afternoons and a cleaning frenzy-Saturday, we could actually eat at our dining room table, and just about every box that once cluttered our apartment was unpacked. I can’t even explain to you how good this felt.
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| After |
Of course life’s little victories have also manifested themselves in other ways. For instance, in obtaining a residency parking permit. Who knew receiving this coveted sticker and placing it on our car (in the correct location) would end up feeling like we had just climbed Mount Everest. This brings me to number 11…
11. Moving to Boston in the next year? Work on getting your parking permit now.
Oye…Just thinking about this whole process all over again gives me a headache. Let me explain. So, in order to park on the streets in Boston, you have to obtain a parking permit for your neighborhood. Sounds easy, right? Waaay wrong. Of course before obtaining this permit, one must also do A, B, C, and D. But before doing A, one must also do a.) and b.) and receive x form and bring this to B, also bearing in mind that one can only do C after doing B, and the locations at which one brings forms B and C close at an hour that is inconvenient to any person who has a job—oh and you only have 7 days to complete D after completing A. Meanwhile, you are receiving $40 parking ticket after $40 parking ticket because they’ve made it so difficult to obtain that stupid sticker.
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| Aaron playing the Blues on
his harmonica during our trying times.
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Now, I know you’re asking…“Oh, but, Elise, what if you get a flat tire throughout this whole process and can’t move your car right away? What if you get your residency sticker and celebrate because you think you’ve defeated all odds, but then accidently put your sticker on the wrong window? And, for goodness sakes, what if you if you happen to forget that there is street cleaning on the third Monday of the month...??” Well, let me tell you the answer to all three of these questions: You get ticketed. Oh except in the case of the street cleaning, your car gets towed and you get ticketed. Don’t worry; we’ve tested out all three of these scenarios for you—just in case there were any doubts...
Wow. I’m sitting here in the beautiful Boston Public library rereading what I just wrote, and I’ve just got to say: despite all set-backs, I think we have come a long way in a short amount of time. I mean, it seems like only yesterday that we were just realizing (in horror, after already receiving two of what would be eight total tickets) that we still had steps A, B,C, and D to go through before we were able to obtain that glorious residency sticker (we didn’t even know about sub-steps a.) and b.) yet)…It feels like just yesterday that I was resorting to parking in the Stop and Shop parking lot despite the warning that ‘THESE LOTS ARE CLOSELY MONITORED’ so I best not park there for more than 50 MINUTES...And it seems like yesterday that mounds of boxes stared us in the face throughout our apartment. Though I am glad to have all of that muck behind us, I will say, all that muck does make you appreciate all the un-muckiness that much more. I don’t think I will ever forget how accomplished we felt when a spunky Hispanic woman placed that Massachusetts license plate in our hands, or how we were driven to giddy celebration at a nearby Irish pub after receiving our residency sticker. I can tell you one thing: I will never under-appreciate a parking spot again.
Oh, and what do you do when life gives you muck?? I say squish it between your toes.
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