To recap where we are so far:
- We bought a boat in order to live on it.
- We are fixing said boat.
- We gave up our apartment.
- We moved into The Commune.
- We are still fixing the boat.
- The Commune timeline is running short since AllesGirl and HerSpouse are moving to Berlin.
- We are moving into a friend of a friend’s apartment very soon.
It’s a little kooky…
It is amazing how many things there are to do before one moves out. Three days before the Great Disbanding my Better Half and I ran errands, picked up needed items, and helped pack things for storage while AllesGirl crammed items into the 5 suitcases they were taking with them to Berlin. (HerSpouse was on a trip in Cancun Mexico – he is an airline pilot too – and the photos he sent while he was relaxing on the beach were NOT HELPING ANYTHING.) We had many discussions about what was needed to bring versus what was wanted to bring. I’ll say that it’s much easier to make decisions when it’s not your stuff.
Two days before The Great Disbanding we packed up our meager (not meager; how are we going to fit all this crap on our boat?) possessions + Kommune Kittehs and moved into Commune 2.0. The following day we stopped by Commune 1.0 after work and helped pack up AllesGirl and HerSpouse with last minute stuff. The idea was to load the neatly packed suitcases into the truck, the 4 of us would drive to one final Commune dinner where we would toast our brilliance with witty remarks, and then we would drop them off at their hotel where they would stay one final night before departing the following day, refreshed, relaxed and jubilant in their adventure. The reality was more like this:
When we got there AllesGirl was madly shoving items into bags that would eventually go into their suitcases while HerSpouse looked through what had already been packed. My Better Half and HerSpouse quickly realized that all 5 suitcases + random bags + 4 people would not fit into the truck at one time. They drove the suitcases and most of the bags 30 minutes away to the hotel while AllesGirl left to drop her car off to the person who bought it from her. While they were gone I cleaned The Commune rental in anticipation of the Landlord final walk-through. It was now 7:30 pm and none of us had eaten since lunch.
I was taking out trash and cleaning when I realized that someone had left the front door unlocked. “This should be locked”, I thought, as I locked and closed it behind me. Too late I realized that I was on the outside of the locked door… It was ok because I was almost done cleaning and AllesGirl would be home soon. I sat on the front porch and waited for a few minutes. The bugs were starting to come out and I was the sweetest thing around. I took a chair off the porch, schlepped it around back then jimmied the back window open and climbed through; terrified the whole while that someone would call the police or that I would break the window sash. Those things didn’t happen but I had to laugh at the absurdity of the situation!
My Better Half and HerSpouse finally returned with AllesGirl not far behind. I loaded the last of the crap treasured items into the truck. Landlord showed up. He said something like “You’re always here” to me (which was technically true, I nearly always was). Better Half and I waited in the truck while he did his walk through with our friends who had actually signed the lease. And waited. And waited… It was, by this time, 9:00 and the few dinner places that exist in Commune Town were closing. We waited some more and considered leaning on the horn to speed things along… Finally AllesGirl and HerSpouse said their last goodbyes to Landlord, collected their deposit check, and we drove off to a Mexi-feast at the same restaurant where we ate dinner on the very first night of the Commune. It had pleasing symmetry.
We dropped the soon-to-be-German Commune members at their hotel and that was the end of that. Sort of…
Those 5 suitcases turned out to be quite a story; AllesGirl tells it better than I ever could…
Sailing Devilfish 