Moving Day

Saturday, August 2, 2014

I drive my son Alex to work at six this morning. I am disappointed to find that my fingers are getting tingly when I touch the steering wheel.  This is totally unexpected as it is not that cold outside, and I do not have any gloves with me.  I pull my sweatshirt over my hands so I can drive. They tingle until they get warm.

Kaileigh calls at seven twenty, she and Josh  are ready to start unloading the truck.  She though they might sleep in this morning, so I am not quite ready to go. We leave Providence around eight, and have no trouble finding our way to the new apartment.  It is in Somerville, near Tufts University. When we arrive, they are already unloading boxes and furniture from the uhaul, and with the help of Josh's friend Cass and his brother Ben, we are done well before noon.

The apartment is very nice, three bedrooms, one bathroom, kitchen, living room, dining room and a large entryway.  It is already full of boxes from Ian and Anna, friends that Kaileigh and Josh are sharing the apartment with.

I am glad I can help with the moving, and that the positioning of my bag is such that I can hold things to one side on my right hip easily manage to carry things. My chemo backpack keeps everything safely out of the way. I have dressed in jeans a tee shirt and a long blouse, but often my bag peaks out from beneath my shirt. I am very self conscious about this and keep tugging at my shirt to keep it hidden.

 Kaileigh and I start to unpack the kitchen.  It is fun to open the boxes, and see what is inside.  Since the two couples are combining households many of the boxes hold new surprises.  We sort through duplicate items and decide where the most logical place to put things might be. Kaileigh finds it a little overwhelming, but I enjoy sorting through these things and finding new homes for them. 

Around noon time, we decide to break for lunch and head to Davis Square, which is a ten minute walk away.  The neighborhood seems lively and diverse, with many ethic restaurants, a nice looking little library, many churches and a Museum of Modern Renaissance.

We eat at a restaurant called Amsterdam, which sells only beverages and falafel, which you top with delicious items from their salad bar, french fries, and salad. It is a long narrow restaurant with only a few tables.  The tabletops have holes cut into them to hold your cone of falafel or your fries, which are served in a paper cone.  The walls are covered with photos from Amsterdam and old rock show posters from that city.  There is a mural of a large, beautiful tulip behind the counter which seems three dimensional, because the color causes it to appear to pop out from the background.  It is beautiful.

When we get back to the apartment, Kaileigh and I continue to unpack the kitchen until about three.  This is when I get so tired, I know I will not be able to do much more. We say our goodbyes, and head back to Providence.  I doze as we go through Boston.

As we get closer to home, a plan for dinner materializes.  Dan calls and wants to bring over pizza.  By the time we arrive back in Providence, we are having a spontaneous dinner party at our house.  Dan, Dave, Tangie, Adam and Walter are all coming over to share the pizza.  I also have fettuccine, eggplant and salad in the fridge that Amy brought over last night, and some other delicious leftovers from the week, chicken cordon blu from Heidi, a little bit of Captain Tom from Joan. It is a lovely way to spend time with friends and it helps us not waste any of the delicious foods dear friends have brought us during the week.