Going Better Now
The first few days after my move were really washouts. The moving helpers had carefully stacked all the boxes against walls, mostly organized by box size, and as high as possible in the interests of getting them all to fit in while at the same time allowing for clear walkways through the apartment. However, DB decided while I still slept the following morning that it would be helpful to move all the boxes according to what kind of stuff was in them so they could be sorted more easily. Unfortunately, his method had a few strikes against it - the main one being that I mostly just threw things into whatever box they fit into without regard to keeping the contents segregated by category, and the other being that he spread the boxes out, stacking them no more than 2-3 high, and often with a larger box on top, or softer more collapsed one on bottom, so the stacks tend to topple if you breathe on them, and there is no space for getting around them to even start working on them. And since he threw his back out moving them in the first place, re-organizing the stacks in their new locations wasn't really an option. *groan*
By this week, though, I had waded through enough boxes around the edges to make a few pathways and could start making a little more progress. With the window installers coming on Tuesday, I had to get all the boxes away from the dining room window, so that was where I started and I am happy to report that there are now fewer boxes staged there waiting to be unpacked than there were before the move (the dining room was where the boxes were staged that I had carted over in my car a few at a time in the last few months, so it had a good supply to begin with). I'll admit that some of them are just moved to a different place, but I unpacked 15 boxes in the last 3 days. I've taken 3 huge bags of clothes and stuffed animals to the nearest Community Aid drop box, and there will probably be another 5 or 6. It would be good if I could get through the rest of the boxes of clothes that don't fit before Christmas so that someone else can have them in time for the holidays. Most of the rest of the clothing tubs and boxes are not particularly accessible, though, so it will be a stretch. Especially if I don't soon start getting past the horrible stiffness all this activity has produced. My legs are so tight I can barely walk today, and even my fingers feel like they've been running a marathon without training - since most of the stiffness is in places that unpacking the boxes didn't really affect, I'm assuming that it's just the fibro telling me I'm not supposed to be working so hard.
So yesterday I took a day off from unpacking and made a batch of Chex Mix and watched the Caps - Sabres game. Sabres won 3-0. Caps looked really flat. Figures, since it's the first game I've been able to watch in 2 weeks, the Caps would end their 6-game win streak on the night I get to watch! But it was nice to sit and relax anyway.
Book rec for hockey fans: Gabby, Confessions of a Hockey Lifer, Bruce Boudreau's very interesting memoir, available in bookstores now. From passing up a chance to play for a month at a higher level so he could appear as an extra in the movie Slap Shot, to narrowly missing becoming a September 11 World Trade Center victim, Gabby's life has been an incredible trip. He is quite open about and takes full responsibility for the mistakes he made in his playing career that kept him forever in the minor leagues instead of the NHL, assigns praise and blame quite liberally to hockey figures of the past and present from all levels of the game, and recounts pages and pages of memories from that magical Hershey Bears Calder Cup run in 2006 and his surprising Thanksgiving Day 2007 callup to lead the Capitals right on through their 2009 playoff run. I enjoyed all of it, but it was especially enjoyable reading about so many of the games and plays that I saw in person and remember so well, like Eric Fehr's OT winner in game 7 of the AHL Conference finals agains Portland. I was in the stands that night, and due to having injured my knee and being on crutches, we had seats against the rail at the corner of the 2nd level, with the best view in the house of that goal. We were cheering before the goal light came on, our angle on the goal was so good. And like the celebration at the Giant Center the evening after the Calder Cup win. Like the Caps' Game 7 against the Rangers last year, when Sergei Fedorov scored with 5 minutes left in the game and the crowd just went insane. I was there, and it was so incredible, I had to call auntiemeesh to share the intensity of the moment with someone else, just so I wouldn't explode from it! And especially Dave Steckel's Game 6 OT winner in Pittsburgh, which I had to settle for watching on TV but which is one of my all time favorite hockey moments. Steckel has been my favorite player ever since he joined Hershey for the 05-06 season, and it is clear in the book that Boudreau has a real soft spot for him also.
Me with Dave Steckel the night the Bears finished a 4-game sweep of Baby Pens in 2006 playoffs
Revisiting those moments from Boudreau's perspective was really cool for me as a fan, but even if you weren't there or aren't a Bears or Caps fan, I think most people will find Gabby's memoir a very entertaining read.
By this week, though, I had waded through enough boxes around the edges to make a few pathways and could start making a little more progress. With the window installers coming on Tuesday, I had to get all the boxes away from the dining room window, so that was where I started and I am happy to report that there are now fewer boxes staged there waiting to be unpacked than there were before the move (the dining room was where the boxes were staged that I had carted over in my car a few at a time in the last few months, so it had a good supply to begin with). I'll admit that some of them are just moved to a different place, but I unpacked 15 boxes in the last 3 days. I've taken 3 huge bags of clothes and stuffed animals to the nearest Community Aid drop box, and there will probably be another 5 or 6. It would be good if I could get through the rest of the boxes of clothes that don't fit before Christmas so that someone else can have them in time for the holidays. Most of the rest of the clothing tubs and boxes are not particularly accessible, though, so it will be a stretch. Especially if I don't soon start getting past the horrible stiffness all this activity has produced. My legs are so tight I can barely walk today, and even my fingers feel like they've been running a marathon without training - since most of the stiffness is in places that unpacking the boxes didn't really affect, I'm assuming that it's just the fibro telling me I'm not supposed to be working so hard.
So yesterday I took a day off from unpacking and made a batch of Chex Mix and watched the Caps - Sabres game. Sabres won 3-0. Caps looked really flat. Figures, since it's the first game I've been able to watch in 2 weeks, the Caps would end their 6-game win streak on the night I get to watch! But it was nice to sit and relax anyway.
Book rec for hockey fans: Gabby, Confessions of a Hockey Lifer, Bruce Boudreau's very interesting memoir, available in bookstores now. From passing up a chance to play for a month at a higher level so he could appear as an extra in the movie Slap Shot, to narrowly missing becoming a September 11 World Trade Center victim, Gabby's life has been an incredible trip. He is quite open about and takes full responsibility for the mistakes he made in his playing career that kept him forever in the minor leagues instead of the NHL, assigns praise and blame quite liberally to hockey figures of the past and present from all levels of the game, and recounts pages and pages of memories from that magical Hershey Bears Calder Cup run in 2006 and his surprising Thanksgiving Day 2007 callup to lead the Capitals right on through their 2009 playoff run. I enjoyed all of it, but it was especially enjoyable reading about so many of the games and plays that I saw in person and remember so well, like Eric Fehr's OT winner in game 7 of the AHL Conference finals agains Portland. I was in the stands that night, and due to having injured my knee and being on crutches, we had seats against the rail at the corner of the 2nd level, with the best view in the house of that goal. We were cheering before the goal light came on, our angle on the goal was so good. And like the celebration at the Giant Center the evening after the Calder Cup win. Like the Caps' Game 7 against the Rangers last year, when Sergei Fedorov scored with 5 minutes left in the game and the crowd just went insane. I was there, and it was so incredible, I had to call auntiemeesh to share the intensity of the moment with someone else, just so I wouldn't explode from it! And especially Dave Steckel's Game 6 OT winner in Pittsburgh, which I had to settle for watching on TV but which is one of my all time favorite hockey moments. Steckel has been my favorite player ever since he joined Hershey for the 05-06 season, and it is clear in the book that Boudreau has a real soft spot for him also.
Me with Dave Steckel the night the Bears finished a 4-game sweep of Baby Pens in 2006 playoffs
Revisiting those moments from Boudreau's perspective was really cool for me as a fan, but even if you weren't there or aren't a Bears or Caps fan, I think most people will find Gabby's memoir a very entertaining read.