scenes from packing

You know when you hear people talk about moving and all they do is gripe and complain? Or roll their eyes and heavily sigh about all that packing they have to do? I know, so annoying (I'm giving myself the side eyes right now). Well today I'm here to do my best not to gripe and complain or roll my eyes or sigh, but instead to show you how uber fun packing can be! Yay, packing! I wish I could do it everyday!

One of those exclaimed sentences is a lie. I'll let you figure out which one it is. 

On Thursdays I don't have any morning classes. This is great for many reasons (I'm eyeing you, Gilmore Girls), but this week it was great because it meant I could pack all Thursday morning. I had grand plans, I tell ya. Great, big, grand plans to tackle all sorts of packing things.

But then I got out a box that was labeled "office." "Office," in this instance, means All Of Emily's Crap From Different Stages Of Her Life With Which She Doesn't Know What To Do. 

You can see why labeling said box "office" is much easier. 

Suddenly 8 am was 11 am. Then I had to teach. Once I returned from teaching 2 pm quickly turned into 4:30 pm and I was still stuck on my "office" box. Now I'm sure at this point you are all thinking that my office box surely has got to be like a Mary Poppins bag full of endless surprises; however, alas my "office" box is merely a big ol' packing box with just a bunch of ::bleep:: in it. 

First I had to go through the thousands of greeting cards I have saved up. Birthday, graduation, thank you, bridal showers, engagement, wedding, teacher, and random cards accumulated through 26 years of life equals more cards than a Hallmark store (or five). All in my office box! How lucky. The thing is I had to read through these cards, obviously, so you know that took all of a few minutes (read: hours). 

Then I came across my favorite card ever where my sister wrote this:

I always, always make fun of her handwriting. Partly because she is my younger sister and isn't that a thing? Making fun of everything younger sisters do? However, mostly I make fun of it because...look at it. The End. 

2435 cards later and I was ready to tackle the rest of my "office" stuff. 

Then I found the paper where Freddie wrote his wedding vows. Cuuuh-rap. Tie me up and call me a female because I had to stop and reminisce and get sappy and sentimental. Had. To. This is somewhere around when 8am turned into 11ish am. 

I finally got a hold of myself and pulled out an envelope of pictures. 

Awww, baby Emily with baby Emily's friends. Polaroids! Instagram prints! Photo booths! Big pictures, little pictures! Seriously, by this point the "office" box had straight up turned into a Pringles can--once you pop, the fun don't stop. 

I did what any sane person would do upon finding old pictures and I took pictures of the pictures on my phone and sent them to everyone. Are you starting to see how fun my Thursday was?!

Around 4:05 pm when I needed to leave for an evening of teaching and performing I managed to get everything repacked in a new box that will soon be labeled "office." 

I took a pile of "office" randoms into the guest room to separate it into other boxes. Sad thing is, I couldn't find the guest bedroom because of this: 

but let's not talk (read: complain) about that craziness.

And that, my good friends, is the story of how I unpacked and repacked one box in the span of 7 hours.