It's Tough Being Friends with a Hermit Crab

               My grandma, who even does crossword puzzles in pen, says she will always use a pencil for my place in her address book.  She’s not questioning the longevity of our relationship, but instead says, “You move more often than a bored hermit crab in a cage full of shells.”  I can see her point.  In the past ten years I have moved thirteen times.

                Most of the moves have been out of necessity, others out of boredom or preference, but all of them performed with a sense of excitement and adventure.  Adam and I tell our friends we are moving and there are a series of groans and moans that I counter with, “Who doesn’t like to move?” 

                “We don’t,” they say.

                …despite that, they show up to help, and it reminds me how wonderful our friends really are.

                When you have moved as much as I have you have some great memories and some not so great memories.  The earlier ones were the hardest, because only now do I have a web of loving people in my life who can help me.  (I’m also only now happy.  I think those two things are connected.)  Then I got control of my life, or as much control as anyone can have, and made some much needed changes.  In that process I met Adam, who I fell madly in love with, and we started a life together complete with friends and family…and many different places to live.  Since then even the most pointless of moves have gotten easier thanks to some of the same people who are probably reading this blog.

                 The craziest of moves Adam and I have ever done was a few years back.  We lived on the third floor of an apartment in High Point, and we wanted to move to another third floor apartment.  Same apartment complex.  Same layout.  Same rent.  In the middle of summer.  The only reason we wanted to move is the new apartment would face some trees instead of a parking lot.  The idea of it now makes me laugh and I still have no idea how we convinced anyone to help us that day.

                Even though Adam and I have always had help moving in the seven years we’ve been together, regardless of situation, the easiest move we’ve ever made has been this past Wednesday’s move.  My biggest piece of advice I could offer anyone who needs to move is----get cancer first.  I have never in life seen a more organized group or had more people show up to assist.    It turns out when you have cancer and you need to move mid-treatments to save on expenses, everyone in your life will stop to help.  One dear friend put it perfectly when she said, “It’s hard to come up with an excuse not to help when you play the damn cancer card!” 

                We had so many people show up that the entire move only took three hours with several extended breaks in between.  It was one of my happiest days since the despair of being diagnosed with cancer.  I kept telling Adam I didn’t know if I was more excited about moving into an awesome new apartment or getting to see so many of my friends all at once!  I’ve have felt so disconnected from everyone, because I just don’t get to see them like I used to, and I had a whole afternoon of catching up…of laughing…of feeling normal.  All the people who helped may have felt like they were moving my boxes and furniture, but they were moving my spirits too, and I think I needed that more than anything else.

                I want to end this by sending out a few special thank you’s to some of the people who helped on Wednesday.  In case you are uncomfortable being mentioned publically I’m using your initials:

S.S.-Thank you for being the driving force, the motivator and the brute strength.  Also, thank you for showing up with dinner after everyone else was gone because you didn’t think we’d feel like cooking.  That was really very sweet.

S.J.-Thank you for being a work horse, for your awesome van and staying with us to help unpack.  Also, thank you for that quiet moment with your sweet gift.  It really means a lot to me.

M.R.-Thank you for giving up your day off, and matching S.J. in being determined to be the two quickest people at emptying an entire room.  Thank you for the laughs.  I’ve missed you so much.

J.H.-Thank you for coming in the middle of your work shift to let us use your truck and move large furniture in your suit and tie.  That takes some true love. 

A.V.-Thank you for being the first to show and get the moving party started.  Thank you for letting us muck up your brand new car with boxes and for not killing Adam when he messed with all of your seat settings.  You say it’s no big deal, but we all know that is annoying to fix.  J

T.D.-Thank you for always being such a major source of my entertainment and giving up a perfectly delightful vacation day to help us move.  Hope your knee isn’t too angry with you.

M.P.-Thank you for being willing to spend your morning/afternoon moving us when you still had to go work a full shift.  That’s not something a lot of people are willing to do and hopefully the sunburn didn’t make you too uncomfortable at work!

R.J.-Thank you for the food!  It is so sweet that you delivered lunch to everyone since you couldn’t be there to help move.  It was perfect timing and greatly appreciated.

M.H.-Thank you for coming after work and delivering coffee as we unpacked for our second wind of energy.  As always, it was so nice to see you and your sweet visit was the perfect end to moving day.  You mean a lot to me, Biscuit.

T.L.-Thank you for always being my ray of sunshine, even if only for a brief hello.  J

Thank you all so very much…