We moved out of the Tulsa apartment on Sunday, May 11th, 2014.
Family started showing up around 8:30. Max's parents brought bagels and the U-Haul. My mom came for the kittens. She helped us wrangle them, gave hugs, and then said goodbye. The movers showed up exactly at 9 am, which was incredible. There were now 12 people in and out of the 750 square foot apartment. This was... a few...
Max's brothers and mom stayed largely downstairs at the picnic table between two of the buildings. The two dads helped carry some things and tie down the additions into the U-Haul. The two movers were absolutely incredible! They packed that truck from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. When they first arrived, I asked if they though everything would fit. They were unsure and didn't want to make any promises. The Burgess clan had reserved an additional 5' x 8' trailer for us just in case things got out of control.
The first thing the movers had to do was unload everything that came up from Frisco. This included a couch, two headboard sets, a queen mattress set, a bookshelf, a box with some goodies in it, a lamp stand, and a reclining chair in two pieces. Then there was everything Max and I already owned. Which is a lot. I mean, a ton of stuff.
Three hours went by of running up and down the stairs, trying to make sure we packed everything, trying not to freak out when we had to repack another area of the truck. For me there were a few really tough moments.
We bought a big scratching post for our kittens when we brought Amelia home. She loved the hell out of it. Loki also went crazy for it. They loved racing up and down the thing, chasing each other off and playing king of the hill. It's the only scratching post we have that Amelia will use. It's been a huge part of their home. It wouldn't fit in the truck. It took up too much space that we needed for boxes and other things. Everyone started to say that we should just leave it in a dumpster instead of taking it. As a kid who moved around a lot, I know the value of always having a bit of home with you. I wanted this to be the anchor piece for the kittens. Something familiar to have in the new city. It broke my heart to take it out of the truck. Thankfully, my parents were able to take it to their house, so it's not gone at least. It's still tough on me that I wasn't able to bring that along for them.
At the very end, seeing the completely empty apartment freaked me out. I had spent so much time down in the trenches of planning the move that the actual fact of leaving the country hadn't sunk in yet. Now all of our stuff was packed and there was nothing we could do to stop it. All of our friends were gone, we only know a single person in Vancouver, and I've never even been to the city. I'd wanted out of Tulsa for a long time, but now it was real and I was in full on panic. I know we are doing the right thing. It's just tough to leave everything you know behind.
Everything fit in the U-haul. By some miracle of miracles, we didn't need the 5' x 8'. Max's car was more loaded than I would have preferred, but I think the drive will still go fine. We'll just have to walk to dinners or send two people out to bring food back.
Here goes nothing.
