A Digression - Moving

This was the most difficult move of our lives. We have been so blessed and fortunate to have moved many times in the past 8 years, so we have a wealth of experience with which to compare this. First, it was difficult moving from a bigger place (house) to a smaller place (apartment.) When we moved into the house, there were lots of things that went directly to the attic, oh that blessed level of the house - maternity clothes, old baby clothes, folding table and chairs, etc. Here, everything went straight into the living room. There was no room to move. We have a machsan near our parking spot (which is way the hell down on meenoos "minus-3" shalosh). The first 2 days and nights we made endless trips to the machsan schlepping all of those storage items. There is no concept of "carts" like one would have in apartments in America, so we had to schlep everything by hand. Also, since there is not a single closet, there's no place to just stuff something. Everything was out in the open, boxes and belongings as far as the eye could see. And the mirpeset could only hold so much - "No, not another suitcase! Leave me be, woman!" Finally, it was difficult because of the amount of assembling we needed to do. In a regular move, they come with a big truck and load everything in - they don't need to take every single thing apart. Because we were so scrunched for space in our lift, Donny took everything apart before the lift left (I love saying that - almost as much as "Pinkus!"). He disassembled bookcases, our beds were taken apart, our dining room table was in pieces - and every single thing had to be reassembled from scratch. It was a painful process. We decided we are never moving back to America, because first, we pledged to not be apart from our stuff for more than a night, and second, we can never go through the packing and unpacking of the lift.

One final thought: As our things were being unpacked, I imagined the couches, toy boxes, table, etc. all kind of squinting and stretching, looking around, saying, "Wait a minute - this isn't Plainview! Where ARE we?" And then, suddenly, the refrigerator starts talking to them in Hebrew and they're REALLY confused. But luckily, Nafi and Lisa's folding chairs are there to reassure them - "We did this last year, you'll get used to it, it's not so bad. Klitah Neima!"