Movin' On Down the Road

It is time to move. This week I'll be packing up and getting ready to make the big move to the big house. I'm feeling fairly good about it, but a it nervous too.

My apartment has already been rented out. This is a very, very good thing. You see, I screwed up. With all the hullabaloo of the divorce, I forgot to tell my landlord that I was moving out. I finally remembered to call her the day the divorce was final - June 5. That's when she gave me the bad news - my lease specifically says that she has to have a full 30 days notice before moving, which technically meant that I would be responsible for payment through August 1. I was just sick to my stomach. I understood where she was coming from, after all my landlord is just running a business and in this economy getting new renters might be tough. Still, just because I understood it, doesn't mean I liked it. I was pretty mad at myself, I can tell you.

We worked out a deal though - she could show the apartment any weekday during the hours I was at work and I would do my best to keep it "show ready." If she could rent it before the end of the month, then we would just proceed as if I had given her notice on time. It seemed like a good deal, until the first time she went to show it was the one time I could have really used the apartment to myself!

Last week I wrote about spending the afternoon hauling wood. What I didn't tell you was that I dropped mom off and drove towards home, looking forward to a hot shower and dinner before going down to the theatre to House Manage. You guessed it... that's when I noticed I had voice mail. I can't check my voice mail at the cabin for some reason, so once I got into town I took a listen. It was my landlord telling me she would be at the apartment with people to view it at 6:00 and 6:15 - the exact times I needed to be there to clean up. It was 5:15 when I got the messages and I was still on the road. I called my landlady and explained the situation, letting her know it would be fine but please, please don't come up until 6:00. She promised to call first.

I walked in the door at 5:35... and was indeed out the door, fully dressed and looking professional by 6:00 on the dot. I saw the woman who was coming to see the apartment and thought to myself that she looked like just the kind of person this apartment would be good for - she looked like me. Not like we had similar features, but we were cut out of the same cloth: mid-thirties, professional women, nicely dressed, and with that "recently divorced" look in our eyes. I don't know that she was, she just looked that way to me. In any case, I was right about her being a good match for the apartment - she took it on the spot! My landlord called to tell me the great news and said I must have good karma!! I don't know about that, but I was thrilled it turned out to be so easy, even if it did mean that my "dinner" that night consisted of a crude sandwich, made from meat and cheese I had in my car from the cabin, that I put together on the top of a cardboard box on the way to the theatre.

The cardboard box in question was one for packing up. Now that my apartment is rented, I have filled it with the detritus of moving - boxes, crates, packing materials and plastic bags. It looks like a UPS truck exploded in the middle of it! Tonight I am going to go home and try to put together a plan. I have friends helping me and I would like to have a somewhat organized process before they get there.

This is the big step - what I have been gearing up for all month. This is the whole reason I am keeping this blog and struggling for every penny. At the end of next Monday, I'll be up and running for real!