Moving On

Thursday and Friday Jeff and I went up to Cullman to finish cleaning out the shed at the house. The house itself has been empty for a while, but we still had things in that shed that had to be removed. They finally sorted through all of the red tape and a closing date has been set for next Wednesday.

On some level I am relieved to finally have some closure to all of this. But it also hurts like heck. Don't get me wrong, I love having my own home and really have no desire to spend the rest of my life in Cullman. And even though I haven't lived there for over a year now, on some level that has been "home" for the past 17 years. I have moved from houses before, but I was young enough that it didn't affect me in the same way. I guess the accumulation of 17 years worth of memories makes it harder to let go of the brick and mortar. I know that no matter what, the memories will go with me. And having little pieces of that house in my own home now will help with that transition. But it's still hard.

One unexpected blessing in the whole experience was the fact that John came home and was able to help. It was nice to get to share memories as we went through things, and it was nice to have the extra set of hands and the extra truck! Even with three of us working pretty darn hard, it took about 7 hours to get it all done. It was a lot of stuff. It took two truck-loads to various dumpsters around town, and about two truck loads to be donated. We kept about 5 boxes to be stored with my dad and Catherine. And Jeff and I took back enough stuff to make Jeff roll his eyes and fill up the back of his truck. That's it.

After we finished loading everything up, I did one last walk-through of the house before we locked the doors. I didn't cry, which was surprising, but it was kind of sad. I think what really hit me harder was coming into town on Thursday and turning in town instead of continuing down the highway toward the old house. It's strange to know that I won't be back. But now I am moving on.