Down The Homestretch

We're four days away from needing to vacate the house we've lived in for the last two years. I am freaking the f**k out.

Considering the utter craziness of the past couple of weeks, we're actually in pretty good shape. I kicked into gear about three weeks ago, writing out excessively detailed to-do lists that I was convinced I had to get through as soon as humanly possible. (Thank you, anxiety!) Every day I felt like I was running out of time, and that we had to get everything done that day. Because of my need to get at least one task accomplished daily, we've managed to knock a few off our list pretty quickly. We've sold a lot of big-ticket items that would be potential storage space eaters. We've rented a storage unit to temporarily keep our non-essentials in.

Two weeks ago: Lots of things checked off our list. We've purchased a trailer, which is activating another type of anxiety in me:

I've only ever driven a car, so driving a bigass van is daunting to me. Driving a van pulling a trailer? Absolute panic attack. J is probably going to be the exclusive driver for our entire journey.

We've also been able to move a lot of stuff into the storage unit already (a shit ton of shelves, winter clothes I've sorted, some books, our collection of board games). I started going through everything we own to decide which items we'd be taking on the road with us and putting them into storage bins to make it easier to pile them into the trailer when we leave.

One week ago: The J-Man got into a cycling accident. He was going very fast while checking his bike computer to double-check his route. He needed to take the next turn and upon looking up, realized it was coming up quickly so without thinking, he made a sudden left turn. He assured me that under normal circumstances he probably would have made it, but it was drizzling a bit so the ground was a bit slick. He slammed hard to the ground, landed on his left side, and bounced.

The day of his accident was probably one of the scariest and most stressful days ever, and I’d rather not go into detail about how I felt while waiting for information on what happened and the extent of his injuries. He is extremely lucky that he was on a trail and not on a busy road. He also had no broken bones (WHEW!), but he did sustain some significant injuries that warrant him being on crutches and in recovery for about 4 to 6 weeks. The half Ironman he'd been training for? Out of the question. Him being able to help carry the heavy things we own, load them into our trailer and into our storage unit? Definitely out of the question.

So you can just imagine the level of stress in the air (or more accurately, in my brain). I am thankful we have family and friends who were ready to step in to sub for J. I was able to pack up and unload most of the stuff into the unit on my own (J was OK enough to drive us to the place....I still cannot bring myself to drive the van farther than the grocery that's 5 minutes from our house.). For things that were too heavy for me to lift alone, I called on a couple of guy pals to help me while J stayed at home with the kids. Again, super grateful for the help! Also can't help but feel like a badass myself. 💪

I am happy to report that we are at the point where all we have left to pack are the things that we are taking with us, plus stuff we'd need to put into storage last minute but still need (mattresses, toaster, TV, those sort of things). We've made a Goodwill run and donated what we could to lessen our accumulated crap-we-don't-need-but-somehow-still-have. We've also put together a balikbayan box worth of donations to the Philippines. We have a few days to get things done, like schedule a massive garbage pick up, tend to the garden which we have neglected because of the rain (I just finished mowing the lawn for the first time a while ago! Hahaha!), and basically, just wait for the last day so we can get all our stuff out and do one last sweep of the place.

Four days left. Typing this and seeing everything we've accomplished written down despite setbacks makes me feel a little less panicky. However, there's still a lot of stuff to pack, so...

See ya later! 🤟🏼

Today's Theme Songs

I woke up this morning to an email from our landlord telling us he’s thinking of selling the house. He is worried that the market bubble wouldn’t last in its current state and that waiting too long to put it on the market may not be a great idea. Our original lease actually ended in April and we requested to extend a few months to give us time to get our ducks in a row. We agreed to a month-to-month setup until the end of June, when we planned to leave the property and into our first of many short-term rentals en route to Vegas. We didn’t sign anything legally binding, so I guess the landlord was free to do what he wanted. After the J-Man explained how $$$ it would be for us to find a last-minute rental, hiring movers, etc. and asked if they would be willing to pay us to vacate a bit earlier than we agreed, our landlord refused and asked us to consider this our 30-day notice.

Cue Billy Joel, who has been stuck in my head all morning in between frantic thoughts of all the things I have to do in the next month.

The J-Man wasn’t even a little bit fazed, bless the dude. “We are getting kicked out in 30 days,” I told him via FB Messenger, worried he might not have seen our landlord’s response since he was busy setting our eldest son up for his morning school meeting. “I guess we’ll just accelerate some of our plans,” he said. Immediately I hopped onto VRBO (which I found to be a fraction better than Airbnb, IMHO) and found a place for us to stay for the next month. I messaged family and friends who lived close by about the change of itinerary, as well as some of our neighbors. In under an hour, I had two places booked for the days we would have been homeless.

Cue Freddie Mercury and David Bowie because goddamn my veins are thrumming with so much nervous energy!

Anyway, it’s all good. After a panic-stricken morning, we took our kids to a playground in the city, got some sashimi takeout and tried a new Starbucks drink (which I thoroughly enjoyed), then went back home. After stuffing my face with what was meant to be my belated Mother’s Day treat, I went for a run in the sun and now I am writing this, reinvigorated with endorphins.

This is what we have been “training” for, I guess, with all our jet-setting and road-tripping around in the past couple of years. We seem to always have to do things on the spur of the moment, and as much as it can be stressful AF sometimes, we seem to actually thrive in situations like this. The last time we had to leave in an emergency and be somewhere over 2700 miles and 40 hours away, the J-Man went to a car lot, picked out a second-hand van, bought it, and drove it home. We packed 3-4 months worth of necessities and hit the road the next day. This time, we have to sell our second car, buy a trailer, fill that up as well as a storage unit with two years worth of things we can’t get rid of in time, and hit the road in 30 days. By our usually crazy metric, we are actually ahead this time around.

Cue Modest Mouse, because we’ll all float on okay.

See ya later! 🤟🏼