We have been tracking the saga of our ocean freight container for the last 10 weeks. It traveled from India, got stuck in Sri Lanka, made the voyage to NY and then through Chicago until it finally landed on our doorstep. TODAY! Originally, we thought it was coming last week. In fact, yesterday morning we thought it was coming next week. Then yesterday afternoon the big surprise "whoops, its here in MPLS, do you want it tomorrow". (somethings are the same in the US or India)
I am fairly certain that Tom forgot all the stuff we brought home with us (aka how much we brought home) and he cheerfully signed on for greeting the movers and unpacking it all himself. I did manage to talk him into taking some kid help from Mary for the day. She picked up Billy and Kay and kept them well occupied for 4 hours (Thank god for Mary!).
Needless to say, it was not the piece of cake that Tom was visuallizing. It was 58 cartons of crap from India that has been traveling in an ocean freight contianer for 10 weeks. What in the world did we bring home? Well, a ton of stuff we had brought with us - kids bikes, computer, pictures, books, toys, sheets, summer clothes, etc. AND a whole bunch of stuff we bought - dining room table, 12 chairs, china cabinet, entertainment center, more toys, more clothes, more books, etc. Thankfully, Tom's mom is also in town and she came over to play with the kids, have dinner and keep them out of our hair. They played passport (a game where you pretend you are in the airport going on a trip, you have to stand in line, give your ticket, have your bags checked and then find your seat. Once you do that, the airline attendent feeds you dinner and you watch a movie. Hmmm wonder where our kids came up with this game....) The house smells like a weird combination of diesel and salt water. Sort of a Jersey beach vibe.
Tom has done a great job (so far) we are probably 50% unpacked and the "big stuff" is all set up. Just in time for the weekend! I am not sure we'll get through the rest of it this weekend or next or even the week after. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I was getting used to living in a house with no crap, no furniture and no clutter. I find myself asking ... how did we get so much sh_t?!?
I suspect this will be another adjustment point for me in the whole reaclimation process.
Send us peace in the process.
