Whew, it’s been a long couple of weeks 
First, some positives to start this (probably lengthy) post:
- As of last Wednesday, it’s been two weeks since my second COVID vaccine (Moderna side effects were a time), so I’ve got the full coverage of the vaccine! I’m still planning to wear a mask because I can still get (and spread) COVID, but it has definitely lifted a weight from my shoulders.
- That was really good because it helped me feel safer attending the wedding of my best woman! Not all of the guests were the best about following social distancing and the masking rules that the couple put forward, but it was still great to celebrate with them.
- Lastly, I registered for my Fall 2021 graduate school classes. I’ve been planning to attend graduate school since my sophomore year of college and was accepted into an Anthropology MA program (with funding) earlier this year. However, I’ve been pretty nervous because I haven’t had a lot of direction of what to do next since late February or early March. However, I’ve got everything settled now, so I’m just waiting until orientation this summer!
There’s definitely been a lot happening, but while all of those are great, they’re currently being overshadowed by something else in my life: moving. As I mentioned in the Shelfie Time! thread, I’m currently in the middle of moving from one apartment to another. My spouse and I have been trying to move for a couple of months because she’s a funeral director and needs to be closer so that she can respond to calls for removals when she’s on call. Right now, though, we live an hour away, so she hasn’t been able to fulfill that obligation, so we wanted to move closer. Plus, she’s having to commute an hour back and forth every day which leaves her exhausted when she comes home (hence the reason we wanted to move closer).
The process of finding a place to live has been really challenging in the town (or even area) we’re looking at. There’s a population of 15,000 which isn’t small, but it means that there are limited renting options. Buying was potentially another option for us, but all of the houses in our price range were selling really fast (some of them would have multiple offers in under 24 hours), so that left renting as our only option. After finding a place that fit our budget and needs, we applied to an apartment in March and then waited - for weeks. We finally had to reach out and ask what the situation was only to find out that they’d never processed our application. After asking them to go ahead with that, we got approved and told we could move in mid-May. After several lengthy email chains, we got a finalized move-in date and the unit number (we only got this two days before we started moving in).
Fast-forward to this past Saturday, our move-in date. With the kind help of my father-in-law, my spouse and I were able to get several boxes to our new place, including some new pieces of furniture that we had to buy for the new place. As we prepared to leave for the day, though, we realized the keys (which had been left in the unlocked apartment) didn’t work on the doors. After several hours of agonizing about what we were going to do (and being unable to get ahold of the apartment’s manager), I ended up driving back to our old place to pack an overnight bag, an air mattress, and some of the other boxes we’d already packed. I didn’t get back to the apartment until after 11:30 PM Sunday was better because my spouse’s sister was able to stay at the apartment during the day while we went back home to pack more things up. While still a long day, we got a lot of our stuff moved with the help of my family-in-law, and we were never without power or water because they were on when we started moving in.
The last three days have been rougher, though, because both my wife and I have work. We were able to get the correct apartment keys (although our mail key still isn’t working), and we even got a hot spot from a library so I could keep working from home! However, once our workday is done, we have to go home and continue packing so I can unload things the next morning. This has meant that for the past two nights, we’ve still been packing boxes or loading the car after 10 PM, then had to get up at 7 AM to get ready for another day of work (and unloading for me). It’s definitely been tough (especially with the coming heat and humidity), but hopefully, it will all be over after this weekend (when we’re moving the big furniture). It’s sapped my physical and mental energy (which has made it hard to do more than like things on the forums), but I know it’s going to be for the best! Hopefully, I’ll be able to be on the forums more soon once we’ve got it all figured out to hang out with all of our new Mounties!