So, the move happened a couple weeks ago. Craig got a rental truck and a couple guys from work to help him, and they moved all of the big stuff--the couch, Jacob's bed, another twin bedframe, mattress, and boxspring, a bunch of clothes, and a few other things. The couch was the big challenge, but otherwise it was pretty uneventful. Carter and I had a quiet rest of the day after they dropped off the truck, came back for one last load, and headed out.
Somewhat predictably, the big move lasted all of one night. And also predictably, I spent most of that one night on the phone with Jacob. And now he's been back home nearly two weeks. Much ado about nothing, apparently, as we're back to status quo.
Well, sort of. The move wasn't the best-planned endeavor, and apparently they still need more lamps and a few other creature comforts. As a result, Jacob wasn't loving the feel in the apartment. Then he spent most of that first evening doing a big deep clean of their kitchen. That was the point where he called me to get some advice on a couple things, which turned into a FaceTime session with me talking him through how to clean the dishwasher and microwave (which of course was new and therefore clean, but apparently not clean enough). He got through a lot, but at some point during the call he started theorizing he could do a deep clean of our kitchen too, so maybe they should come back until closer to school starting, at least until vacation. Now, I pretty much predicted this scenario, although maybe not quite so soon, and with a different trigger--I figured having to handle all of his own cooking would get to him first.
So the next day, they came back with clothes and a few other things. But of course, Jacob's bed had been moved over, as had both of their dressers and Jacob's food cart, which meant that everything they brought back didn't really have a home, so the house was instantly even more chaotic than even the move left it, which I never really had time to fix in the first place.
But of course, the original problem hadn't really gone away. Once they were home, Jacob tried to start by cleaning the microwave, but eventually he freaked out, insisted he didn't have enough of a specific kind of microfiber cloth to do it properly, and gave up. That was just the beginning of a long week of loud arguments over pretty much everything--but most often the state of the kitchen. I've tried explaining that if I wasn't already spending so much time cleaning up everyone else's messes, maybe I'd have more time and bandwidth to do more thorough cleaning in the kitchen. But as it is, I wipe down the counters multiple times a day and still feel like I can't keep up with the mess everyone leaves behind. I asked for him to do his part, but I just keep getting the excuse about the microfiber cloths and complaints about how gross it is. But of course, it wouldn't be if everyone else just cleaned up after themselves.
We also argued about him getting his permit and whose fault it was that he was now 18 and it was so much more complicated. When he turned 16, I told him that I wanted him to take some initiative on this and look up on the DMV site what the steps were. Everything has clearly changed compared to when I was 16, so if someone was going to have to look it up, why shouldn't it be him? Initially it was partly because there was no reason it should be me, partly because I wasn't in a rush for it to happen, and partly because I wanted him to take ownership of something important. Of course, he'd tell me that my parents helped me get my permit, so I should help him. Well...to be fair, when I was 16, there was no internet. It was either go to the DMV or nothing, so yes, my parents had to help me. But now, with everything online, it's easy for teenagers to grab the information they need. The study guide is there, the instructions are there, and in my opinion, if you're going to be a driver, the least you can do is research how to get there. Well...two years dragged on and he kept putting it off, insisting I should be doing it, and here we are. Jacob is now an official adult and has no photo ID, and everything is now so much more complicated. He can't take the test online, DMV appointments are a month out, and we're hopping a plane in less than a week and he has no valid ID. He's squarely blaming me, but I don't feel like this was an unreasonable ask. Craig did end up printing the entire study guide for him, which I was annoyed about, but I probably would have done it without question if he had looked online, found it, and asked for me to do that. But he didn't. He has been studying, but with appointments a month out, it doesn't really matter anyway. We have to go through this other process to get him on the plane, which is annoying but should be doable. We're also working on renewing his passport, which expired a while back but was essentially invalid once he turned 18 anyway.
All of those arguments were exhausting, to be honest. We have sort of worked out some things in the last week. I had my official first visit to the apartment, in which I gave some input on a few things and figured out that their dishwasher wasn't draining (and subsequently figured out how to fix that). The apartment still needs some tweaking and decorating, but I think they can get it feeling pretty homey. It will be an interesting exercise for Jacob, as I think he will appreciate the ability to have more control over his environment. But right now he's a little preoccupied with it not feeling quite like home. Hopefully he'll get there.
When we went to the apartment this past weekend, we brought back his new air fryer and a few other cooking items so he'd feel more comfortable with gluten-free eating in our house. He's been a bit more chill about that since we figured those things out, and he also got a little more peace of mind by taking a home stool test that looks for traces of gluten, which came back negative. That sort of put to rest (for now) his concerns with incidental gluten exposure in our house. I wasn't sure we'd make it to vacation at the rate we were going, so I'm glad he's not quite as agitated with everything. Otherwise he's still struggling a bit post-concussion, as he got a headache again yesterday after a workout, but I hope addressing the gluten concerns will drop his anxiety down a bit and allow his body to relax. If nothing else, Disney should do that next week. He also met some of his new school teammates this week, but the jury's still out on how the team might be shaping up this year.
Next up is vacation, and I'll be honest, I have no idea how I'm getting ready in less than a week. I have so many work projects, so much organizing and packing (in a decidedly disorganized house, no less), and a lot of mental and physical planning left for the trip itself. Disney changed their Lightning Lane stuff since our last park trip, which I am endlessly annoyed about because I'm not sure how to utilize it with the setup we're doing. We're still finalizing exactly what we're doing with parks, but we need to get on that ASAP because of the new setup. I'm sort of being reminded why I opted for a park-free experience last year, as it was nice to just go and do whatever, but I do miss the parks. But that part is weighing on me more than usual, I guess.
I'm just getting that feeling where there aren't enough hours in the days that are left to get everything done. I should work late, but if I work late, I won't get things done around the house. If I don't get things done around the house, it will make things that much harder to prep before we leave. If I force myself to stay up late to do that, my sleep will suffer and that will make my brain fog worse, which will inevitably cause issues somewhere down the line. Too many moving parts, for sure. Just looking at my packing list is enough to stress me out. It's going to be a BUSY few days.
Anyway, just a few photos to wrap up this post. The weekend after the move, we did some outlet shopping. We went to Buffalo for my family reunion and made a stop in Niagara Falls, but we didn't find much of what we were looking for, so on Sunday we headed back out the other way, this time to Waterloo. We did a little better there (Carter got much-needed sneakers, at least). We needed to find somewhere to eat on the way home, and we ended up at a place in Canandigua called Rheinblick. It's a German restaurant that offers gluten-free schnitzel. Our meals were pretty amazing. Just look at Carter's schnitzel!
Craig and Jacob got similar ones (though Jacob's was gluten-free, of course), and mine had a brown mushroom gravy. They were SO good. Now I really want to go to Oktoberfest (which, incidentally, is already shaping up well, per the webcams!).
The hydrangeas are starting to change color a bit. They're still pretty in a different way, but these blues and blue-purples will always be my favorite.
A couple weeks ago I was driving home from Wegmans and caught this incredible sky that reminded me of angel wings. It was stunning.
One night we had some showers move through and the sky to the west behind it was doing some interesting things--different clouds, highlighted clouds, pink-orange sky. The rain had passed long enough previously that I wasn't thinking rainbow, but at one point I turned around and saw this:
It was so pretty and honestly, a little reassuring with all we've been dealing with.
So, onward we go to see how much I can get done before Tuesday evening...
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