Sunday, December 14, 2008

Moving is emotional

So, it was an emotional weekend for me, since I moved. (Am I the only one, besides my sister and my mom, who think that moving is emotional?) I didn't work on Friday, and spent that whole day finishing packing my apartment, thanks to my amazing sister Kaylynn, who is a whiz at doing anything one-handed (with a 8-month old on her hip). Then Saturday, luckily, we got most of my stuff out of my apartment into the trailer and all six cars that drove to my new house before the snow hit. Unluckily, we had to drive in it to West Jordan. Luckily, my grandpa's house has a garage, so we backed up each car to the garage and unloaded that way, so we weren't traipsing around in the snow too much. We made it with 90% of my stuff in one trip. We had to go back for my washer & dryer, a few bookshelves, and my bike that has two flat tires and a old ripped up seat. (Ask me when the last time I rode it?... no idea. At least 2 years, probably longer.)

I have to go back tomorrow after work to finish cleaning and to get the rest of the garbage that we left. Oh, and the food in the fridge. I am really afraid I'm going to forgot that part, and that would not be a good welcome to the new tenants. :)

My new house: that has been part of the emotionalness of the weekend. I moved in with my grandpa. He is lonely and needed some companionship. He is in fairly good health right now for an 86-year-old man, so I am not his nurse or caregiver. I am just here as a warm body in his house, for the most part. I will be helping out with certain things, as needed. It is going to be interesting and challenging, for both of us, I'm sure, as we settle in and get used to each other's schedules. It is hard for me because I've been living alone - footloose and fancy-free, and hard for him because he is 86, and I just invaded his house. He thinks I have a lot of stuff. He watched it all get brought in and was a little overwhelmed. Lucky for me he has a nice big house with a nice big basement which I took over, pretty much.

I had a good cry about it this morning, with my mom and dad. I think it helps just to cry once in a while. I guess I have been crying way more than normal for me lately. Maybe that will stop, who knows. But, I am feeling good about it. We will be ok. My biggest stumbling block right now is food and the kitchen. I don't have any space in the kitchen, for anything. Ok, not totally true. I have two random cupboards. But, I knew that was going to be the case. I packed up most of my dishes, and I'm just going to use his stuff, for the most part. But, the eating thing is a challenge. He feels like he needs to feed me. I don't want to be fed, because I'm on Weight watchers, and therefore trying to be picky about what I eat. But, I've been eating with him, which is ok, but I can't do it all the time. So, I tried to tell him about WW, and that was why I wasn't eating everything he offered me. But, he still offered cookies and ice cream after that. So, the food is going to be a challenge for a little while, until he figures out that he can just let me do my own thing and he can do his thing, and we can eat dinner together once or twice a week, and be ok with that. For now, I am just doing the best I can, trying not to offend him, because he gets offended when you don't want to eat his food. I figured I earned lots of activity points this weekend moving, packing, hauling, unpacking, sorting, etc. that I am sort of ok to eat whatever.

Church was also interesting today. Everyone knows grandpa, and therefore knew of me at least. Some people knew I was coming, so welcomed me when they saw me. They tried to get me to go to a singles class for Relief Society, but I refused. Was that bad? Probably. But I think that most of the girls that went were 19 or 20. Not really my idea of fun. Then, after church, I was supposed to meet grandpa outside the relief society room. I got stopped, and was talking to a nice lady in the ward. I saw grandpa peek in the room, and then leave. So, I finally was leaving, and couldn't find him anywhere. I got stopped in the hall again by 2 nice ladies, so I talked to them for a minute, then I asked if they knew where grandpa was. They told me he had walked out the door. So, I was afraid he had walked home without me. I went quickly out the door, couldn't see him anywhere, tried to go look down the street to see if I could see him walking, wasn't sure what I was going to do. And of course, I looked lost. Another nice lady, the bishop's wife, got out of her car, and asked if I needed help. She started walking back in the building with me to see if we could find him, and luckily he walked out right then. We had been going in circles looking for each other. We need to do better next week with that one. I shouldn't talk as much, or he should just stick to the original plan.

But, my mind was going, as I was looking for him, thinking, "I can't even keep track of him for an hour, how am I supposed to do this for 6 months? or a year?"

1 comment:

Emily said...

I'm glad that everything went well with the move. Moving is definitely an emotional experience. When we moved in August my emotions were up and down because I was so excited to move into a bigger nicer place that was ours, but I was also sad to leave our small apartment that we had come to love over the last 3 1/2 years. Plus there's the stress of just actually getting things packed up and moved. I also agree that a good cry every now and then can help. I hope you get settled in alright. <3