Saturday, June 21, 2008

So it's here! Saturday, 10 am our time, about 9 pm Friday EST time, the truck rolled up with five men and four wooden crates. One of them was mostly filler, empty boxes and such, and then our mattress. It was just as I thought - absolute bliss for the first time in 12 weeks - to wake up in that bed with my own pillow, on crisp white sheets, under a light down comforter, having slept all night long. The night before the stuff came we had several phone calls in the middle of the night. Our credit card company called seven times in one 'day', the last call Tim finally answered in time to find out what they wanted . He was so mad he laid into the agent who still insisted on delivering her message, despite his anger at the hour - 3:20 am. Then called back to register a formal complaint and fix things so they don't do it again. I imagine that the company's phone system has autodial set up, so she probably had no idea that we were in the Pacific until he told her. She would have had to know what FPO and AP stand for in our address, then use what little brain matter she had to deduce the rest.

Anyway... the cello is tuned but I can't find my book of lessons and music yet. There was very little damage to any of the stuff, a few crushed boxes, scraped corners on bookshelves. A lot of our stuff is IKEA which we got for free off of Alexandria Freecycle and Washington DC craigslist. (any Okinawahai readers who may be headed to that area, bookmark these sites! We have actually made money by scooping up free stuff then reselling at yard sales or even back up on craigslist, or by experiencing damage in a military move and getting replacement value for it.) The one piece that is destroyed beyond use or repair is a particle board wood-tone short filing cabinet, which I used for teacher-like supplies. Again, we got it for free because it was locked with no key. But I think I can live without it.
The kitchen is mostly unpacked and the school room is getting there. The kids' room is about halfway done. Chas made a 'knife' out of plastic Bionicle pieces and used it to open boxes, one by one, as we requested. He got out what he wanted to play with, then unpacked and put away the remaining contents. After opening a few boxes of Mia stuff, I think he started just closing them back if they weren't his stuff. Mia and Simon celebrated the opening of each box by dumping the contents and promptly throwing things around the room. They are a little too young, I think, to be expected to show a little restraint with the excitement at the level it was. Not to mention, Tim and I were downstairs working and not really paying attention.
Later int he evening, Tim went for pizza - shrimp this time, and without the mayonnaise please - while I went up stairs and walked them through the ankle deep mess and we got a good bit of it cleaned up and stowed in good homes which they helped choose. They were very good about telling me, yeah I threw that over there, or I dumped it out because I wanted to play in the box. While Simon and Mia and I cleaned up, Chas broke down the empty boxes and got them into the hall.

We are comfortable with the amount of stuff we brought, and we think it will fit nicely in here. We may have to get creative to find places for some things, but overall, I think we'll be okay. I would like to figure out (I fully realize I may never know the answer here) why I brought turtleneck sweaters, fuzzy slippers, and footed fleece jammies. I know I was a bit distracted with preparations to get here, but I don't think I meant for them to pack that stuff. I may ship some of it back, or try to sell it here. They have rotating flea markets on the bases, so some of our kitchen duplicate utensils, etc can go there, I am sure.

I hope we can get things unpacked pretty quickly, Chas has been an immense help and we are trying to get Simon and Mia in on it too. So we'll have pictures to post soon!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

We're on the way out the door for church, but had to take a second to say, "Thank Goodness". Enjoy unpacking and setting things up...I am so happy for you. Now you can make a home!!! Yea!!!
Aunt Beth

Josee said...

I can't tell you how disgusting shrimp pizza with mayonnaise sounds ... please explain?

Jax and company said...

no no no - without the mayonnaise this time! We had mayonnaise on our pizza with corn and something else last time. This time it was shrimp and onions with some unknown slightly sweet sauce instead of traditional tomato sauce. It was, actually, pretty gross - we discussed what would be involved in keep a papa john's pizza cool for the 2+ days it would take someone to fly here. It doesn't sound feasible, sadly. Good thing, though, we do have a Macaroni Grill on one of the bases here!