God am I tired. I don't know if it's from the 13 days in Wisconsin on a fucked up schedule or if it's from the move last weekend, but I'm just worn to a nub. Plus, I'm sore.

Friday, the wife went and got mother-in-law and brought her back to the house to help pack. While she was gone, some guy pulls up to the house, takes a ladder and goes to the back of the house. I was too lazy to see what he was doing, luckily, he was putting stuff away when the wife and mother-in-law pulled up. Mother-in-law pulled a '20 questions' on him and found out that he was with Media One's phone service and had cut off our phones. Well, shit, that sucks. So, the wife and I jumped into the car and headed to the apartment with him in tow so he could hook up the phone there. No biggie. Guys were supposed to be coming (or to have already been there) to put down new carpet, the cable guy was due that afternoon and things were moving pretty swimmingly. We even thought we might get to move some shit in on Friday, a day early. But no, we're not that lucky.

After the phone guy leaves, we go home hoping that the carpet guys will come while we're gone. I end up taking my mother-in-law to her house so she can get a radio and then drop her off at the apartment to wait for the cable guy. I then head up to the office to get my paycheck because we need to pay our move-in money. Well, I get my check and head home to get the wife and then head to the bank. Well, the wife is feeding the baby and can't really leave so I ask her how much we need to pay. Oh, by the way. My paycheck, with my OSH bonus, was over $3,200!! Woo-fuckin'-hoo!!! Finally, with cashier's check in hand, we head over to the apartment office to sign our lives away...for at least the next 12 months. Unfortunately, the carpet guys were really late so we didn't get to move stuff early. All that comes the next day.

Saturday morning around 9:00, I head to the local U-haul to get a truck. About 45 minutes later, I'm tooling to the house in a 24' super mover. Monster thing. Loved it. I could look down on everyone I met on the road, even pick-up trucks. Talk about a powerful feeling. Anyway, we start putting shit in the truck and, typical of Florida, about 30 minutes into it, it starts raining. The wife takes off to go get mother-in-law and I button up the truck and sit inside with Demonchild and Icebear Jr. watching cartoons until it lets up. Luckily, just about the time the wife gets back with her mom, it's pretty much stopped so we continue. Unfortunately, the humidity has jumped up dramatically and now it's not only hot, but very very sticky. The wife and I get into a few arguments as to what goes where in the truck and what to load first, but all in all it goes rather smoothly. We had a lot more shit than I thought.

One aggrivating thing about the move, however, was that we had to 'deliver' appliances. We sold our refrigerator and our stove, but the people who bought them couldn't come and get them (or woudln't) so we had to drop them off. Luckily, they lived close to the apartment. The stove was easy, but the fridge was another matter. First, the door to the apartment wasn't wide enough so we took it off (the hinges had been painted so it was no easy task). Unfortunately, the doorway was still not wide enough so we had to take the handles off the fridge. After we finally got it in, we headed to the apartment and started to unload.

Our biggest problems with this apartment are that 1) it's on the second floor, 2) it's at the very end of a building, with stairs easily accessible at the front door, but the elevator is ½ way down the building, the other way, and 3) the stairs have a very low ceiling. So, small boxes and shit like that were taken up the stairs at first, but then the wife and mother-in-law found some stray shopping carts and started taking loads up in the elevator. Me and father-in-law (who was doped up on pain-killers...go here to learn more) started taking bigger things up in the elevator. There wasn't any really quick or easy way to do things so it took time. About 7:00, I was really starting to drag down. I hadn't eaten much all day, I was drinking water like it was going out of style and sweating like...well, like...well something that sweats a lot, and my arms were cramping from pulling on the dolly. Finally, about 8:00, we have one item left. My Polar Bear shrine. It's really just a big wooden hutch, actually really light, it's just bulky and awkward. We're all sitting in the back of the truck taking a break, which we all needed. Pops finally sticks the dolly on the hutch, tells the ladies to help him steer, and tells me to go ahead and park the truck. It was great. After a whole day of pulling things in and out of the truck and up and down in the elevator, they take the last one and I don't have to lift a finger. I appreciated that. We were finally finished moving...except now, we had to unpack.

Since we didn't have a shower curtain and we were all pretty whipped and mother-in-law wanted to have pizza delivered, we went back to their house, took a shower and relaxed. We headed home about midnight or so and just crashed on the floor. Demonchild was the only one who had a bed that was assembled so he crashed first. We put Icebear Jr. on a big blankie on the floor and we put our mattresses on the floor in our room. Tomorrow, we'd start "assembling".

First thing we did was straighten up the boys' room and get stuff situated. The main phone line and cable line, unfortunately, come into the apartment through their room, so we had to "hide" some equipment under a dresser or Demonchild would be pulling out wires and shit. After that, we went to work on the entertainment center. While I was away, the wife disassembled the entertainment center, thinking it would be easier to move. At first I was pissed, but she ended up being correct. And I admitted as much. So, first thing was to get the entertainment center back together to free up floor space. After that, by this time, it's in the afternoon, so we took a break to go eat. Next was the new dinette set we got at Big K. Nice set. Well, we killed time eating and being lazy so it was kind of late when we finally got started on it. The frames for the table and chairs were easy to put together, it was the table top and the chair seats that were a pain. They're all wood and they didn't have any pre-drilled holes so we had to have things exactly perfect. After about 2 aggrivating hours of barking knuckles, stripping out screws, and busting little plastic caps with the hammer, the set was done. It actually looks really good. I'm proud of myself. After we finished that, it was time for bed.

Sadly, we haven't done much more than that. The wife went back to the house and got "odds and ends" that we left behind for one reason or another. She also got a new shower curtain, and the faucet and shower heads from the house. Those were ours. We cleaned up a little more and put some more stuff away, but the apartment is still really cluttered and there's still a lot of unpacking to do. It's a bit of an adjustment, but we're getting used to it. We can't play our music real loud anymore, we have to remember to be quieter at night since our neighbors are on the other side of the wall instead of the other side of the fence. All, in all, though, I think things will be ok.

We met with an attorney Thursday last week and are in the process of filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. He was a nice guy and made me feel at ease. We just need to get a list of our debts put together and given to him and he'll take it from there. I finally feel, for the first time in a very, very, very long time, that we're coming to the end of this dark, empty tunnel and that the light at the end is actually an exit and not an oncoming bullet train. It's a good feeling. Another good feeling was the fact that I took $1,130 out of my paycheck Friday and still had over $2,100 to deposit in the account. Our balance has NEVER been that high. Talk about feeling secure for once. And to know that we don't have to pay anything but rent and utilities is such a relief. Last night I got down on my first creditor too. They called and I told them we had an attorney and to call him from now on and to not call us again. Very empowering. Not that I really want to do this again, though. But, talk about a burden being lifted. Whew.

Well, I'm going to stop for now. I've been dozing off at work and I'm not really doing anything today anyway. I'm going to tell the big guys upstairs that I have a meeting with our attorney and leave. Take the wife to the house to get her plants, get some lunch, and then go home and take a fuckin' nap. I don't know if I need to catch up on my sleep or what, but I'm just so worn down. Anyway, I'm thinking about updating again at home tonight so check back later. I'm not promising anything though. Till then. Take care.

"Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?"

Icebear

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