9 days left and counting

This is my first entry. I am starting it half-way through the move, and since I am dead tired by the time I arrive home at 8 pm, by the time I make the dogs their gourmet meal and throw together a sandwich for myself and my dahling husband, Brian, the last thing I really want to do is sit at my computer -- but it has been suggested that it may be a good thing to do, esp. after my appeal for help at a low point I had yesterday. I sent out a cryptic email to a few close friends who I thought would understand -- I can't remember exactly, but it was something about hell on earth or living hell -- well I know hell was the operative word. . . Anyway, I, along with Brian and our two dogs are in the process of moving down -- we are moving out of our lovely home in West Seattle into a property on Vashon Island that really could be described as uninhabitable -- interesting,, cool,, oh yeah, unique in a huge way, but livable, not so much. . .(I can't believe I just used that expression, but in this case it really works, so I'm going to leave it against my better judgement. . .)

So we are trying to get the place together enough to move into, by the time we have to be out of our home, in 9 days. We started about a month ago, right after we rented our house to a perfect couple, ironically, from Vashon Island. Anyway, I will go into details hopefully another time, but as I was saying, there is SO MUCH to do, and SO LITTLE time left, and Brian was getting bogged down with the details, so we sat down and put together a schedule of completion, which Brian promptly ignored and continued going down the path of superfluous tasks. I think the schedule idea sort of backfired, since Brian is the king of having his back up against the wall and all the schedule did for him was emphasise how much time we had in front of us, unlike what it did to me, which was send me into a panic.

So anyway, I tried to impart my sense of urgency upon Brian, but it was lost on him, and I shouldn't have been surprised, but I am going to have to move into that hell-hole, so my concern is hard to moderate! Plus, I know from too much experience how Brian and his deadlines pan out -- usually IF they have a successful ending, it only happens with at least one or two near-all-nighters at the BITTER (and I must emphasise BITTER) end.

Anyway, of course I was the looser of the battle, and I could not contain my frustration, so my only outlet was the email -- not really intended as a call for help, it was more of an appeal for understanding. . . and I knew who to appeal to. I have to say, I have THE BEST friends in the world -- the BEST dogs and the BEST friends! So if other things in my life a lacking in the quality department, I make up for it in these two areas!! I had two phone calls last night from friends who didn't quite know how serious I really was. Which was touching. I wasn't desperate, just frustrated, and I don't know what I would ever do if I reached the point of desperation, but who knows, maybe I would send an email. . .so it's good to know that it would work. But first thing this morning, the barrage of emails began, and my friends (and one spouse) carried on a dialogue about my situation and several suggestions of how to deal with it, not to mention corrections of fellow friend's suggestions, and when I finally took a break from the drudgery, the laugh that I had as a result of reading those emails, was exactly what I needed!! My day got instantly better and I began to feel a tiny bit hopeful, not that we'd get everything done that I thought should be done by the time we moved in, but hope that I'd be able to deal with it. . . I finished painting the bathroom and put another coat of paint on the back bedroom and hopefully tomorrow will see an end to the painting. Although I wish we were using low VOC paint, we are not and that oil-based KILZ is killing me!! Plus, who knows how long it will take for the paint smell to dissipate. . . Is this me -- two negative thoughts for every positive one?? I should think about that. . .

Well I NEED to get to bed -- I keep hearing about how I am holding up the process because I am not up by 6 am, okay, 7 am, well, I will say I am almost always up by 7:30 . . . There may be some truth to that. That's all I'll say about it!