Day 7

One week from today we close. We had a great weekend of packing. We are probably 90% packed.

Today I get a lovely day out of the house. Creative Lunch with Justine, a highlight, errands and then we have dinner with 2 darling young women that use to work for John at the station.

John has a day of phone calls as he continues to orchestrate the move.

Barb send me a postcard that says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls." Jer 6:16

Jane commented in a recent phone call that I am finally getting to live my dream. I have wanted to move to Madison for 20 years.

Alice asked if I had any regrets in my life. And I said just one. And that it was that I had never lived anywhere good. (Sorry Cedar Rapids, Rochester, Eau Claire you were all sort of good enough at the time.)

In one week I get in the Miata and drive off into the sunset to a whole new life. A life that at our age I feel privileged to get. Most people our age doing settled later in life things. We will get to start all over and in my case live the life I should have been living all along.

Day 8, McCain and the ERA

Just more packing today with a friend coming to get a HUGE mirror and a neighborhood grill-out at noon. I have yet to mention politics on my blog, trying to just keep it light. Well something has come to my attention that all women and all men who support women need to know.

John McCain was here in Eau Claire, WI Friday and this is a brief excerpt from a 40-minute interview with the Leader-Telegram. Here was a question posed to Senator McCain...

Q: It seems to be women's week on the campaign trail. Critics in Wisconsin have suggested that you opposed a bill calling for equal pay for equal work, but you mentioned in your speech today that you support that concept. Can you clarify your position?

A: Just like I opposed the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the United States because I thought it was not helpful to women and would lead to litigation and court cases and all kinds of problems. ... I will continue to support efforts to ensure equal pay for equal work. That's a concept that all of us support, and it's the law, but the question is how do you implement it and make it effective.

OMG... so conceptually McCain believes that women and men should be paid the same for the same work. but he appears to have no idea how to do that. And the man opposes the ERA. And that is all I will say even though there is SO much more in my head it could explode.

I have heard over and over from friends that all the candidates are too much alike. Well please take this into consideration when you choose how to vote.

And I am going to put this article in my purse so I can share it with anyone who is not sure who to vote for now until election time.

Day 9

These are just a few of the cute neighborhood kids. They visit with regularity. Preston stopped over to tell me that today is her birthday party at Skate America and Caden came over to tell me whose bikes had kick-stands. We enjoy all these visits and will miss all these little kids a lot.

Just more packing today. Going room by room and finishing up. Porch, dining room, living room, 3 bathrooms and foyer are packed. John is golfing and tonight will be a nice dinner with Blythe and Emilio.

Day 10

John: I could pack your shoes for you.

Me: Uh.... no, I'll just put them in a laundry basket.

John: I could put them all in one big box.

Me: No I like them separated by season. I keep the off season ones in a laundry basket. The laundry basket is fine.

John: I could put them in 2 small boxes.

Me: John, would you like to pack my shoes in boxes?

Yes ALL our boxes are packed like a rubic cube as will the truck when we leave.

We think we are 60% packed.

Still no move-in date. I imagine we will spend the weekend packing and bug them again on Monday.

This move is certainly an exercise in being able to turn on a dime and me coming to grips with the fact that I have no control over anything.

But in 10 days we will be out of the house and our stuff will be somewhere... in the apartment... in a pod on the street in front of the apartment... or in a storage facility in Madison. Only time will tell.

Day 11

Yes this is where I am sitting as I write this, awful. John and I so hate mess. Every room is partially torn up.

Today I had my last coffee with my friend Helen and worked on a fundraiser invitation for my friend Blythe and packed.

I slept 11 hours last night w/o waking up. So my coping and packing skills were better today.

And today is our 21st wedding Anniversary. We are going to go out for a lovely dinner once we reach Madison. Tonight we are heading to a fav restaurant for a quick bite and then on to our last Open Mac Night at MacMan. And I suggested no gifts and John agreed but he like gifts. He got me what Matt refers to as the Granny Grocery Cart. But I know it is the French Market Cart as it is what the French women use to do their daily shopping. Then John told me that I could buy him canvas saddle bags for his bike. So he went and got them. Gifts for our new life, lovely.

Day 13

Tonight we get a U-Haul van to make our last trip to Dorchester tomorrow. All of that stuff is ready to go on the truck.

I am packing and sorting all exhaustingly little things... jewelry, make-up, lotions, bath items and office desk drawer stuff. When one category overwhelms me I move on to the next.

Along with packing I had my last girlfriend lunch with my friend Blythe. And tonight I meet Jill at Borders to for our last work night. I am making her some photo invitation templates and she will work on her website.

Tying up loose ends, saying good byes...

Day 14

Two weeks from today we close!!!!!!

The packing continues. John is packing kitchen stuff to go into storage. I emptied out 2 bathrooms.

Starting to call places to stop services like cable, internet, phone. I closed out the lock box at the bank.

BIG NEWS is that we are getting into the building we want in Madison!!! The Madison Mark is right DT between the Capitol and the lake. Fabulous walking and biking location. There is always something happening on the square around the Capitol. Saturday has the Farmer's Market and there is music from time to time, plus we can get on the bike path right across from the apartment and ride around the lake. And on the other side of the Capitol is State St. From there is it one mile to the University and the Union where people of all ages hang out. Not sure if we have a view or not as we will be on the second floor. But the bedrooms should face the lake, I think. (Nancy I can hear you laughing.)

One hitch, the reason we are getting in mid month is that they evicted someone and are giving us that apartment because we want something asap. The people are out but they now need to paint and re carpet. The upside to this is almost every place we have contacted lets people have cats and I am VERY allergic to cats. So it will be good to have new carpet. But we don't know the move in date yet.

We intended to move using a Pod. Because of a EC city ordinance they cannot drop a Pod here. But apparently if worse comes to worse we can get one put in front of the apartment building and unload into that. Not ideal but better than renting a storage facility for a month, if anyone would even do that.

And as our realtor keeps telling us... it isn't over until it is over. The house isn't sold until we have check in hand and we aren't in the apartment until we move our stuff in. But we are getting closer.

Day 15

Woke up with a migraine. Not the painful kind but the dizzy weird vision kind. I've never had one like this. It was like an old TV where the picture rolls. Mine would roll left to right. So strange.

The basement is done.

And with that the sobering fact that we have to rent another U-Haul truck and make another run to the storage unit in Dorchester. We will pull the Tracker out and fill that area. I hope that does it.

This realization came after we kept finding more stuff that should have gone there and we looked at the size of the rooms on the apartment layout and measured them against our rooms.

Not to mention the meager amount of kitchen cabinets...

As I said neither of us has rented since our early 20s.

Tomorrow we hope to learn that we...
1. got into the building we want and can move stuff in before we close... or
2. we have to start looking into a Madison storage facility to store stuff for 11 days.