THE MOVE

I should preface this post with the statement that I love my grandma. She's always been a fabulously loving grandma, and I would and have done anything for her just as she has for me, but I have to rant, therefore, my blog is the medium.

Moving is such a simple word, yet I hate its guts. Moving sucks. And we weren't even the ones moving!!! My grandma finally agreed to go to the Jewish Tower about six months ago. After turning down an apartment in January (damn!), she finally accepted the offer last month and the big move was yesterday. However, packing began a month ago. From a two bedroom rather spacious apartment to a one bedroom rather minuscule apartment (it's so small, I'm not even sure apartment is the right term). Clearly, things were going to have to be prioritized and the B, C, and D-listers needed to be left behind. It was sort of like telling a three year that she/he can't bring ALL their toys in the car, but just pick a few. Then you get the whining response from them, "But I want them!" Sort of the same response from an 80 year old woman when told she doesn't need five (no lie, no exaggeration) sets (yes, complete sets!) of dishes for a one-person household. I mean do you really need to have every mug you have ever set your lips to in your three cabinet mini kitchen. Not to mention all the hideous knick knacks that are going from four display cases into two. Oh, sure, just cram it in, but when the shelves fall, don't call me. (FYI, not all the knick knacks are fugly, so keep the nice ones and get rid of the fugly ones). Why exactly a mini kitchen table is needed in the literally four foot square kitchen when the large, nice dining room table is two feet away, I'll also never understand. Oh, and I can't forget about the two completely full racks of shoes (probably 30 pairs) that she still "needs" especially since I've only seen her wear two pairs of shoes in the last 3 years. But, you know, she still needed those white heels (ummm....wait.....she can't even walk well in flat, sneakers), "in case [she] needs white shoes when [she] gets dressed up". Dressed up??? Where, the hell are you going? The rockin' sock hop in the cafeteria???? She finally came to the realization that some of her things weren't fitting as we were hopping over boxes and hurdling furniture to get around last night, so of course, Ben had to drive back today to gather some of these up for the garage sale. It would have been too much to ask to have figured this out BEFORE we packed and unpacked and then repacked it again.

Well, before my rant gets too unbearably long, I should say that I do love my grandmother dearly and she truly cherishes all her belongings. I'm not an unsentimental person, but I'm also a realist. I am actually very sentimental and keep just about everything (old movie stubs, every card I've ever gotten, etc.), but when I have to move and downsize, I give my kids permission to get rid of them. The nice part is that she has told us all the stories to go along with many items and possessions so it's nice to know their history, but some things don't have a history or an attachment other than parting with something that you once owned. I was actually more compassionate with her, but since she doesn't own a computer, I figured this was a good place to release!