It took me eight days to completely unpack and have my house in order.
EIGHT. DAYS.
I must be more out of practice than I thought.
I think I do deserve a bit of a time extension honor-wise, though, we moved into a rental house that we truly love for many reasons, but the decor was not one of them. Above all, the silver and white vinyl wallpaper and Pepto-Bismol pink ceiling and lower wall was the most egregious decorating violation that I can think of. Really - vinyl wallpaper. I kid you not. I thought that stuff was only for the bathrooms of old ladies with too many cats and lots of lace doilies, but apparently it gets dining room placement, too.
Before signing our lease, we made sure to get an addition that we could repaint the house in our choice of colors. And I spent two days stripping the horrible Victorian-Gone-Wrong paper and painting. Since I couldn't unpack the dining room utensils at this time, I think I should get at least two days knocked off my woeful unpacking time. Now, we won't get into the nastiest real estate agent I've ever met who represented the house owners (feel free to drop me a line if you're moving in the area, and I'll give you an earful about her so you can avoid her), but thankfully we had the wonderful and supportive Larry Whitehead of Saab Realty ready to do battle and sort things out for us. Seriously, people, we could NOT have managed this move without him. Do show him some military support love if you're in the DC area.
Probably the comment I've been getting that has taken me most aback lately occurs when I tell people we just moved into our new house about two weeks ago. "Oh," they say. "Well, give us a call when you're settled in and we can start your homeschool registration/girl scout meetings/Jr. Blue Knight meetings/etc."
When I very politely tell them that, thank you very much we ARE all settled in now and ready to start our lives up again they look at me like my hair's on fire.
"Unpacked? Already? You've got to be kidding."
And here I am feeling like a failure for taking EIGHT DAYS to get everything settled and in place! Apparently, for civilians, this is some kind of super-human speed record! Even the movers were shocked upon arriving at my house last night to pick up the moving debris.
"This looks really lived in, Ma'am!" said the one who had helped unload my household goods.
Well, we do live here, I wanted to say. And not snarkily, either. However, sometimes my humor gets lost in translation and I kept quiet. But I figure that we're not going to be here very long at all, and it's best to jump in with both feet and a house that doesn't look like we're e desperately fleeing war, famine, and persecution.
I think I've got a long way to go until I figure out how to live life among civilians. I just don't have the hang of it yet.
And can someone tell me why it's so quiet here at 5:00? Is the neighborhood loudspeaker system broken? For some reason, I'm just not hearing the National Anthem...
