Truths: What the Hell happened?

Well, I am taking a break right now. I have to – my sanity depends on this blog dragging me up out of this overwhelming temptation to just run away to a deserted island and hide under a palm tree with a fruity cocktail in my hand.

Or at least somewhere other than where I am.

Instead I wait for Best Buy’s Geek Squad to show and hook up the TV and speakers and explain to me in 5 minutes or less how it all works so that I can spend the rest of my life explaining it to my husband.

Deep breath…

Yep, I am waiting for yet another service call at my house. The Direct TV guy, Ken, did come back on Saturday and after another hour or so – fixed the problem and we now have internet (thank God) and phone. There was, for a few hours, a total sense of uncomfortable isolation from the world – but thanks to him the phone is ringing and the emails flocking in.

However, as I wait for the Geek Squad to show up at my door – any minute now… It has been all day. I am knee deep, no make the head deep, in chaos. I don’t know what happened to my life in the last few months – but I feel like someone took it and gave me this continuum of disasters – one right after the other – leaving my house looking like a tornado just blew through.

Let me brief you on what I am talking about:

The basement is sky high in boxes… Green Bay Packer memorabilia packed away from before I think I was even alive. CD’s stacked as high as me – screaming, “You don’t even listen to me anymore.” Bottles of booze so old that they are now vintage. And of course, cartons of beer glasses and martini stems so dusty that it takes a squeegee to get them clean. That or just a shot of vodka to wipe them out… MMMM the vodka is still good.

Taking all of this “stuff” from the back of the basement also meant sorting passed all the other stuff we have accumulated in the 3 years we have waited to remodel the basement after the flood.

Okay, let me re-phrase that – that I (emphasis here) have accumulated. There I admit it and that is the first step.

So, as I gape at the basement which only days ago was sitting pristinely with its new hickory cabinets, custom woodwork, beautiful re-upholstered leather sectional – I find myself sick – because it is hard to recognize any of that now because it is covered in crap. (MY crap, of course!)

Again, sigh…

So, all of this crap begs the age old question, “Do you think it is time to give some stuff away?”

Yeah, Duh!

But seriously, it is. And that is when things get hard. Why is that? Why, when you come across some old silk plant that hasn’t seen the light of day in years – do you say to yourself, “Oh, but maybe that would look good in the kitchen window – after we repaint and get new cabinets.” Yeah because first off when are you going to repaint and get new kitchen cabinets and second when you do – are you really going to stick some old musty silk plant in the new window?” That is what I thought.

Then there are the things you always intended to give as gifts but liked them so much you couldn’t bare to part with them. This even goes for gift bags and cute boxes that are just “too cute” to actually use. I would have normally felt ridiculous saying that – but my friend, Nancy, was over Sunday and admitted to doing the same thing!

I called one of those charities that for some unknown reason agree to take all of your stuff away for free. No, maybe not everything, but almost everything. They are coming with a truck on Monday.

In the meantime, Bill called a waste company and they are coming tomorrow with a dumptser. Looks like the Monroe’s are serious about doing a clean sweep.

But see – none of that was in the cards for us. Nope, this is the time we should just be setting up the bar and the basement and downing a few beers in celebration that we completed the remodel. We should be getting ready for our first party not packing boxes and getting nostalgic about old toys.

Ugh – why does this stuff happen? What part of remodel means re-construct your whole life?

At the same time – I am cleaning out all of the kitchen cabinets and washing all of the dishes and pans and pots and silverware and whatever else you can shove in a drawer or on a shelf because as some of you might remember – Bill had to saw through concrete to get that damn sink to fit and well, that makes a fricking mess – and that fine dust is still sitting on everything we own.

So, there are boxes in the hallway, enough cardboard in the garage that could fuel a bonfire for days, green and gold garb stretched along the basement walls waiting to be hung up, booze bottles littering the floor and bags of give away stuff lining doorways waiting to ship out… and at the same time my dishwasher is going 24/7 washing kitchen accessories and my counter covered with more.

At the same time that we “moved” into the basement – we also lost some of the furniture we were using in the family room and eating area. Never steal from Peter to pay Paul (or something like that) so, that meant Abby and I would spend 2 hours re-arranging those two rooms with the new furniture we got from the garage.

Every thing that I know is turned upside down right now. None of which I expected. The boxes are growing and the dust only starting to settle and my sanity thrown out the window…

And did I mention that I have started Christmas shopping? Yep, those boxes are sitting in the living room – one of the two rooms that are doored off to the rest of the house – two rooms that are pet free, people free but even they have been exposed to the plague of brown cardboard and in a little corner I see some green and gold. Damn the Packers!