Funny, Shawn's Dad is worried about us, not because of all the chaos and the unpacking and the washing that needs to be done - but because he thinks our television is too small.
They've been great, Shawn's father and stepmom. They've stopped by with sandwiches a few times, and invited us over to eat breakfast and dinner several times as well. It's made the whole thing a lot easier just to have that kind of help that allows you to deal with other things besides trying to plan meals. For both of us this is a new thing, having family close by, and having family that wants to help so much. It's really surprisingly wonderful. Surprising and wonderful.
Before dinner (at the inlaws') we decided to take a break from unpacking and went for our first walk in the new city. We decided to walk to my school to see how long it will take me if I decide not to drive on nice days. It was about half an hour each way which is very doable. The nicest part is that the walk takes me past a small lake and most of the walk is very pretty. As we were on the lake path I saw several enormous slugs and a small snake. These are things I would never have seen where we used to live both because it's so much colder and so much drier. I wished like crazy I'd had my camera with me in spite of the fact that the pups have eaten the cable - because I am sure that one day I will get around to replacing it. And I want to take pictures of these things before I become accustomed to them and stop finding them fascinating.
The unpacking is starting to feel like there might be an end in sight now. We've finished with our bedroom and the kitchen and most of the living room, which leaves the office as the biggest job left to be tackled, followed by the basement/garage. I asked the movers not to put anything in the basement here because I have a bad habit of leaving things in the basement, untouched, for all eternity. I hoped that in the garage I'd be more likely to unpack things since I'll look at them every day.
Our basement reminds me of a scene from Being John Malkovich, (which is, by the way, one of my favourite movies ever) because the ceiling is so low. It's not actually low enough that you have to bend the way you do in the movie, but it's so low that if you're taller than six feet, you would have to. Shawn is about 5'11'' and his hair touches the ceiling as he walks. Essentially, it's a "crawl space", or a terrifically large storage room, but for some reason, someone has invested a great deal of time and energy into fixing it up. It has fancy pinstriped baseboards and carpeting and shelves and pretty painted pipes. It's very weird. Hilarious - when the house was up for sale, this area was advertised as "an extra bonus - 200 square feet of living space in the basement". It certainly isn't what I would call "living space" because it's damp and windowless and low-ceilinged. But it is space. I just don't want to start letting junk collect down there because then it becomes all too easy to put things down in the basement to grow mold instead of throwing them away or giving them away. And I hate that.
Tomorrow is my first day at school with kids in the building. I'm kind of nervous and simultaneously excited to be returning to the job I both adored and hated. I don't have to teach tomorrow, just welcome kids to the building and attend some meetings. Then the real thing starts in earnest on Wednesday. In some ways I wish I had more time to finish unpacking and getting things organized without having to go to work... but mostly I think it's going to be a good thing.
Back to making lunches the night before. And coffee. Back to set hours and alarm clocks and back to being a bit more "normal". I never thought I'd want this again... but I really do.
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