The Move to Centreville, March 2005

Image(12).jpg My bookshelf, which doubled as the staging area for things that needed to be packed.

Image(13).jpg ...and the pile of boxes in front of it.

Image(14).jpg The couch didn't escape unscathed, either. Good thing I spent most of my time in the computer chair.

Image(15).jpg The shelves that used to house my signed baseball and my old 7Up bottles.

Image(16).jpg It's hard to see, but the drawers under my desk are already wrapped up. My "office" has also been taken down, leaving only the computer. (Guess what got packed up last.)

Image(17).jpg The hall closet. I needed the chair to get the stuff I'd stored on the top shelf. I hate being short...

Image(18).jpg After I got a box packed, I put it in the bedroom. Here's part of it.

Image(19).jpg That was the stuff, like clean clothes, that was staying with me instead of going on the truck.

Image(20).jpg More of the mass of boxes. Each time I move, I always say to myself, "when did I collect all this crap?!" And each time I move, I realize that some of it has just gone with me each time.

Image(21).jpg The big boxes and the bedside table/dresser.

Image(22).jpg My beat-up old bike, fresh out of storage. I gave it away after getting here once I found out it would cost me about half as much to repair as it would to buy a new bike.

Image(23).jpg Getting close to zero-hour; even the computer's been packed.

Image(24).jpg Now I don't even have the computer chair to sit on.

Image(25).jpg Supplies for The Cleaning. I think I may have left that bottlecap remover stuck to the fridge. Dammit.

Image(26).jpg More supplies for the final clean-up.

Image(27).jpg The bedroom, getting even fuller.

Image(28).jpg The pile, from the inside. If I had any more stuff it would have gotten dangerous to try to walk around in the middle of the night.

Image(29).jpg ...It also would have covered the window before too much longer.

Image(30).jpg The dresser, now wrapped up, and even more stuff. How I fit it all into that apartment, I don't know.

Image(31).jpg The now-bare closet.

Image(32).jpg Yep, really empty. Now that I'm writing this, I have no idea why I took those pictures. Maybe so I'd be able to verify that I'd emptied the closets? 'Cause it would have been so hard to just look.

Image(33).jpg The now-empty hall closet.

Image(34).jpg Almost-empty bathroom, and some fat guy with a camera.

Image(35).jpg Look, Ma! No mold!

Image(36).jpg The entryway closet, also empty. So everything I had was either in a box or sitting out to be packed at that point.

Image(37).jpg Yep, still empty.

Image(41).jpg The bedroom, ready to go.

Image(42).jpg My old mattress, also ready to go.

Image(44).jpg Getting everything unpacked; the TV had to go first so the cable guy could work his magic.

Image(45).jpg I have no idea what's on the side of that box, but I assume I took that picture for a reason.

Image(46).jpg Looking into the dining room. Can't you tell?

Image(47).jpg My poor, abused bike. Its fate was my fault, really. Too much neglect over the years.

Image(48).jpg "Christ, I think that pile actually grew while it was on the truck!"

Image(54).jpg The futon was a casualty of the move; I shouldn't have piled stuff on top of it in the truck. But I was able to fix it up.

Image(55).jpg The living room's original configuration, with lots of wasted space.

Image(56).jpg After reorganizing I freed up the floorspace in the living room, but not much anywhere else. Baby steps, baby steps.

Image(58).jpg The desk, in its present home.

Image(59).jpg Getting the entertainment center set up; I left out the VCR this time since I now have a DVR.

Image(60).jpg Still lots of work to be done.

Image(61).jpg The entryway was still kind of gummed up too. Made it kind of interesting getting to work in the morning.

Image(62).jpg Still trying to get set up. Note that there are boxes everywhere, the futon's still busted, and yet the computer's on.

Image(63).jpg Looking at these pictures three months later, I'm not sure I was unpacking so much as I was just moving boxes around to make myself feel better.

Image(64).jpg But I did get some unpacking done. Those two piles used to be five boxes tall.