This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this.
When last we joined Dave, he was getting over a flu while preparing to clean up his ransacked storage unit. The ten days or so since then has been pretty damned busy to say the least. We went out on Saturday the 17th and cleaned up things. I still don't know exactly what's gone, but I know I'm missing 3 or 4 small boxes of stuff. I know I had a box of old Mac drives and software which is gone. That pissed me off a bit since it's pretty much worthless but damned tough to replace. I think I may have lost some games and a console or two as well but most of that stuff is in the apartment anyway so I don't know for sure. They also took a box of paintball stuff that someone left to me a long time ago that I never used. That wouldn't bug me if not for the fact I had some old school Laser Tag stuff in there. That shit was old school. Oh well, it's not like I would have sold it anyway. The odd thing is we seem to have inherited some other peoples' stuff too. There was a blanket, a bag and some decals left in the unit that we didn't put there. Walking around in the rain while talking to the police did wonders for my health too.
That Saturday was also marked by two family birthdays. My dad and my mother in law both turned 60. I was again reminded of some marked differences between both sides of my family. When I called my dad to say hi, he was at a condo in Mexico. My stepmom had surprised him by taking him down there for four days. Meanwhile, my mother in law was getting ready to move in with us because she can't really support herself. Since it was her birthday we offered to take her out to dinner. We should have set some guidelines or just gone to a casual restaurant. Instead she wanted to go to Red Lobster. I love seafood but man, I don't remember it being that expensive the last time I was there. I of course made things better by ordering a full plate of food I couldn't end up eating due to the illness. I got through some of it, but not nearly enough to make it worth the price. It wasn't a bad experience or anything, it just cost us a lot more then we thought it would.
I can't remember much of that Sunday. I was healthy finally, so we just ran errands and hung out at the house I guess. Monday started the work week up again. I love my job. It's by far the best job I've ever held and one of the best places I've ever worked. However, last week was a pain in the ass. Let me tell you, when you're a key player in a very small office, it's rough to miss two days due to illness. All last week was spent trying to catch up for missed time while trying to get things done before the holiday. On top of that, the owner kept popping up with last minute shit that had to be done, nevermind the fact that everything else I was doing had to be done too. So much for a quiet holiday week.
All of this, of course, brings us to Thanksgiving. The holiday was great but it was exhausting. We flew down to my mom's at about 8:30 on Thursday and didn't really rest much. Being as I'm the only person with any height in the family (mom is 4'11"), mom had saved up a few things for me to take care of around the house. We had about 10 people for dinner and I got to see some family members I hadn't seen in a while. It was nice but we ended up being too busy to get out and see any other friends and family. Carrying a headache through the trip didn't really help with my productivity either. One highlight was the play we saw on Friday. We went to a production of a Christmas Story. I was impressed. They managed to carry over almost every element of the film pretty well. They even did a bit with Santa's slide. After going out to dinner Friday night we packed up and flew home early on Saturday morning.
I'd love to say I got to rest on Saturday and Sunday but you should know better then that. As soon as we landed on Saturday, we were helping family move. Eden's mom and aunt lived together in an apartment near us. When they both were put out of work last year, they didn't renew the lease. Eden's aunt is moving in with her daughter and son in law, while mom is moving in with us. Let me set something straight right off the bat. This wasn't a surprise. They've known it was coming for months. You figure with that much preparation they would be packed and ready to go right? Yeah, that's a funny thought. Good luck on that one. Mom had packed maybe 25% of her stuff before Saturday. The rest was done on the fly. She spent as much time standing around looking through boxes as she did any real work. They have a garage behind the apartment where everyone was storing stuff. We managed to get most of Eden's stuff moved into our unit and got a lot of mom's stuff done on Saturday. On Sunday we finally got mom in gear a bit and got her furniture and most other stuff moved. The plan was to keep renting the garage for a while so anything not moved elsewhere could go in there for now. Of course, like everything else, this went to hell when the manager told them he had rented the garage because he wasn't aware they were keeping it. So we get to spend tonight and this weekend moving more shit. Essentially what shouldn't have taken more then 1 day is taking about 5.
So with all the moving, our apartment is rather chaotic right now. We have a 2 bd / 2 ba apartment with 3 people and 4 cats. The second bedroom was our gaming/pc/storage room so we'll need to move all the computer stuff out so mom can have the room. Until then, she's sleeping on the couch in the living room. We were going to spend this weekend organizing and uncluttering the place but it looks like that's on hold since we have to finish with their old apartment. In the long run, I think I'll be ok with her mom being there. I just think it will take some time for her to get used to us and vice versa. She has some issues understanding how much we want and need our own space. I could get over a lot of my resentment on this if she'd simply thank us for putting her up. Saying she takes us for granted is an understatement. It's not malicious or purposeful. I think she's really just that naive. Oh well. Strap in kids, it's going to be one hell of a ride.