moving time again

Tomorrow the packing begins. But for once we are not the ones moving. My mom is moving out of the apartment she has lived in for the last 35 yrs.
She has 2 weeks to move out and the new owners move in. So Peter, Jonah and I are going to NYC to pack up every thing she has accumulated over a life time.

It seems so surreal. The place was on the market for a yr and a half. at times it seemed like it would never sell. But it has, thankfully. Having to pack it all up is the obvious downside.

I'm happy for her of course. She needs a change. Is ready for a change. But this is the place I've grown up in. When I came home from the hospital I came home to this place. This is what I consider home in so many ways. We move around so much that having this apartment as a constant helped me not to lose it sometimes.

Major memories in the apartment (the short list):
-Getting my first big girl bed. (It was a canopy bed)
-Making pancakes with my dad in the kitchen, before we remodeled
-the Messnick's bringing me my cat Francis. I chased her all around the apt. I don't think she ever forgave me
-Peter proposing in the den
-walking in the park with my mom when we trained for the half marathon
-the summer Jaclyn, Tania, Allison, Brooke, and I all lived there, total insanity
-the blowing up of the macy's thanksgiving day parade balloons and all the parties we had to watch them being blown up
-my Hawaii themed bday party (only Kara will really appreciate this memory)
-eating dinner practically every night with mom during middle and high school
-leaning to cook
-when the grandfather clock got delivered and I helped put it together


Peter and I have moved 8 times in 3 yrs (and have to move again in August) so we are pretty much pros at this point. This one is going to be trickier though since we have to help mom get rid of stuff which she will be very reluctant to do!! I had an argument with her a few months ago over her saving her biology notes from college. i lost......

Just have to remember to be supportive, understanding and patient. Oh and that I can't control everything. not one of my strong suits.

I missed jury duty twice, more like ignored 2 jury duty notices. so i got a summons that I had to appear in court or get a $10,000 fine and/or 10 days in jail. I get to court and the judge is a very old man who is not so happy with me. He's about to pronounce sentence and I'm trying to figure out where I am going to get $10,000 from when he says "Hey, look at that" huh, what is he talking about? He asks if the address listed on my paper work is correct. It is I tell him. He explains that when the building was built in 1926 he and his family moved in to not only the same building but the same apartment. That's right this judge and I both grew up in the same apartment. Had the same bedroom. Created memories in the very same place. There I was in my 20's looking at a man in his 90's whose life mirrored mine in a way.
Now I am the one moving out. New children are moving in. They will fill the space with their memories. They will have a height chart in the kitchen, fall while roller skating around the dinning room table, and fall asleep to the hum of the city street outside. I wish them as many happy memories as I have had in the apartment. Maybe one day I'll meet them in some random way and the circle will continue, the beat will go on.