Friendship defined

[pbray]

I imagine most of us would like to think that we'd jump on a grenade for a friend, or push someone out of the way of a runaway truck.

But there are other tests of friendship. Would I donate a kidney for a friend? Most likely, yes. Hold their hand while the doctor tells them they have cancer, then promise to be there for every step of the treatment? Been there, done that.

Help a friend move? Well...


It's no secret that I wasn't especially thrilled that my best friend was moving 2000 miles away. Happy that she's found someone she wants to be with, yes, but sad that this meant she was leaving. But as a good friend, I sucked it up, and offered to help her as she got ready to move.

Keep in mind that all along jennifer_dunne had been assuring us that everything was under control, there wasn't that much stuff to move, and she'd made great strides. Cue me volunteering to come over on Monday after work to help out with what I thought would be final boxing up, only to discover that every cabinet, cupboard, closet, desk and bookshelf that I opened was still filled.

Thus every night last week I was over at Jennifer's packing, sorting stuff for donations, cleaning, etc. By Thursday so much stuff had been packed that when we finished for the night Jennifer came to stay with me. On Friday morning the movers finally arrived, then Friday night we got ready for a garage sale (not an idea that I'm in favor of).

Saturday was the infamous garage sale. The theory was that we were more interested in having people take things away than we were in raising cash, so we took almost any offer. After the initial flurry of customers in the morning, I spent most of the rest of the day cleaning out cabinets and bagging trash.

Then Saturday evening jpsorrow and Amy came over to my house for a reunion of the original 4 gamers.

Sunday morning we again woke up early so we could do final cleaning--there were numerous boxes to be broken down for recycling, shelves in basement that Jennifer needed to check for valuable keepsakes, not to mention there was still food in her refrigerator that had to be trashed.

Returned to my place where Jennifer's parents arrived for a surprise farewell--surprise to Jennifer, not to me. We all had lunch together, then went up to the airport, where we saw Jennifer through security, then her parents needed to stay to watch the plane take off. I stayed with them, as they expressed their deep distress that their daughter was moving away--she's never lived more than 2.5 hours from home, so this is a huge change for them.

After the plane left, I hugged everyone, reminded them that I'd see them all at Thanksgiving and then came home and napped.

But that's not the end of the story. Because, of course, there's a list.

Patricia's Chores, or reasons why I'll be too busy to miss Jennifer for the next few days: (aka Things Jennifer was too busy to get done before she left town)
w/updates

1. Drop off Jennifer's badge and office keys at work DONE!
   
2. Mail letters DONE!
   
3. Drop off final bags of donations to Salvation Army (note that we dropped off the tag sale leftovers late Saturday, so this is new stuff discovered this morning) DONE!
   
4. Drop off cable box, converter and modem at Time Warner so Jennifer can cancel service DONE!
   
5. Put out trash & recycling on Wednesday night (the trash bags fill up 1/2 of the garage, so this will take a while) DONE! (But it took 3 weeks, since I wouldn't put out more than 24 large trash bags at a time)
   
6. Ship 2 boxes that didn't make it on the moving truck DONE!
   
7. Take proceeds from tag sale to bank to deposit since Jennifer didn't want to travel with that much cash and banks were closed by time sale was over. DONE!
   
8. Meet cleaning service at Jennifer's house so professionals can vacuum, dust, and clean floors Canceled by Jen, new owners are on their own.
   
9. Meet movers at Jennifer's house so that piano and other antiques can be moved back to family in Troy DONE!
   
10. Meet Salvation Army/Goodwill truck at Jennifer's house so they can pick up furniture donations Canceled since SA won't pick up in that zipcode, instead realtor arranged for furniture to be picked up by used furniture dealer
    
11. Hold onto deed for Jennifer's house and then drop it off with attorney for closing DONE!
    
12. Almost forgot this one: Find out which days of the month local library accepts donations for booksale and then drop off books that didn't sell during tag sale DONE!
    

I think next time I'll offer up a kidney instead.

Comments

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

You are a friend to count on. Jennifer should consider herself blessed.

Having been there, I can tell you that some people go practically into catatonic shock at the thought of moving. They need someone to push them along; they just can't fully do it themselves.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Jennifer realized that she had massively underestimated how much stuff she had to move, and how long it would take to pack, sort through, clean up, etc. One of the perils of living in the same place for over 10 years-- when you're used to moving apartments every couple of years there's less of a tendency to accumulate stuff.

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

You are owned one big christmas gift. And booze.

Charlie was always amazed, at his days at uhaul, by the people who would show up to get a truck and had *nothing* packed at all.

At least Jennifer admitted earlier that she was a bit underestimating for things....

(You must be tired - I am assuming you meant jpsorrow?)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was exhausted last night, thanks for the catch *goes off to fix Josh's LJ name*

Jennifer did buy me a beer and dinner at the Lost Dog on Saturday night, but really there ought to have been far more alcohol. Think I'll keep a running tally and she can repay me when she's home for Thanksgiving.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

OK, now I feel a lot better about asking you to send me a sheet of stamps this summer ;)

You are a staunch and loyal friend, and I hope you will be appropriately rewarded (like, with some really good chocolate, some really good beer, and getting to pick out your own Best Robotbridesmaid outfit).

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I'm thinking we make it a Project Runway challenge to design a Best Robot outfit that will look flattering on both myself and jpsorrow.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Hmmm ... ::evil grin::

[teshilaire.livejournal.com]

Wow! You've been busy! As far as books... not sure about all of them but the local whitney point one will take them anytime they are open, and I know i was at vestal once when a guy came in and dropped off three boxes. so hopefully that is one thing on your list that won't be too much trouble!!!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Hey, I hadn't thought of Vestal, thanks for the tip!

The Endicott library is the closest one to where I work, but last I knew they were extremely picking about which days and hours they would accept donations--basically the volunteers had to be on premise because the library staff didn't want to deal with it. But Vestal is just over the river, and I'm often on the parkway.