Moving Times

We are, as I've mentioned, moving in a little less than two weeks. This is pretty stressful, but here's something even more stressful: our house is the "featured" rental property on the Realtor's website. This means that we not only have to pack our belongings, which involves a lot of deciding what to keep while our storage areas vomit into the middle of the house, but we also have to have a house that people can walk through, and ooh and ahh over the floor plan. In other words, storage-area-vomit-free.

This would be tricky for the most organized person. I mean, I think it would, I do not know the most organized person, so I can't really ask him/her. I know that, for us, it is a nightmare. The Creatures and I are distinctly lacking in the organizational department, and in the best of situations, "tidy" is an accomplishment. Imagine, then, the tizzy we're all in over this most recent development.

Today was the first day that people came to see the house. We didn't get the word that they were coming until yesterday, and since Small One is in vacation Bible school this week, I only had from yesterday afternoon until this afternoon to make it all happen. This may not sound like a big deal, particularly if you are someone who was born with the organizational chromosome, but trust me, it was a big deal. I not only had to have the rooms in the house reasonably neat, but the closets also had to look good. This means my tried and true "just shove it in my closet" routine was not going to help me at all. I will not reveal how much time I was able to allot to sleeping last night but I will say, it was not a recommended amount, by any stretch.

By the time we were scheduled to have a showing, I was reasonably satisfied with what we'd accomplished. This is sort of amazing, because the vacuum cleaner went rogue on me during the preparation phase, spitting instead of picking up debris, before finally coming apart in my hand. Not what you want while you're cleaning a house to show it.The fact that we pulled it together was just short of miraculous.

I was pretty exhausted by the time the Realtor arrived, and he arrived approximately one hour before his client did. Guess how he occupied his time while waiting? He talked to us...and talked to us...and talked to us. In a stream that reminded me of a super long banjo piece, he talked about everything under the sun, from his old jobs, to his unfortunate time on the night shift, to his pregnant sister's hospitality, or lack thereof, to the housing market, to the job market, to his clients' real estate predicaments, to wireless internet, and so on. It was as though, in the middle of a fairly hectic afternoon, someone shouted "Banjo solo!!!" and this man popped up out of a cornfield, Hee Haw style. I am just grateful that he arrived as I was wrapping up my work day, or I'd have had to do something drastic to make him stop.

My favorite part of his monologue was the part where he told us that this is is hometown, and this is where he is from, except he is originally from another town, and that he has lived here his whole life, "apart from a two year stunt" in a third town.

A two year stunt? What kind of stunt requires two years to complete? That sounds pretty impressive, whatever it is.