Leaving the hotel

I’m feeling much, much better today. Just like the good doctor said, when I reached the third day I would be near 100 percent. He knows it well. They must see this gastro thing a lot.

Today I have an appointment with our baby doctor. I’m eager to hear the report. I’m pretty sure she’s engaged and ready to roll on out. It was scary to have her not moving and being so quiet those hours when I was ill. Yesterday afternoon though she was kicking and cursing. “Send some chow down here mom!” I still couldn’t eat anything and it wasn’t until last night that I could send down three little maki rolls (we don’t call her baby sushi for nothing). That seemed to keep her at bay. Seb was amazed, “now I know you’re sick.” I usually eat all 10 of my rolls plus some of his.

Our stuff arrived yesterday, a hundred plus boxes plus our bedroom furniture. It was wonderful to see our things. We have a lot of organizing to do! The movers on this end helped us put together a few items--beds and armoires. They were so slow though that we were shocked. It took three guys two hours to assemble Little S’s bed. I guess it was because they were using manual screwdrivers and the beds and well all of the furniture are comically wobbly because they stopped screwing stuff in once it looked reasonably attached. We’ll have to go out and get a battery operated drill and redo them. They were nice though and they worked most of the day even if they didn’t accomplish much!

The movers on the other end, in France, have me more than a little pissed off. They broke a lot of kitchen articles and obviously rejected all my careful notes. They didn’t bother wrapping anything in bubble paper like I asked but in plain old packing paper which excuse me but is ridiculous for an international move. I made this clear so many times before signing the contract, bubble wrap for the kitchen stuff and anything glass. They packed glasses and cups in boxes with cardboard separators but with no wrapping protection at all. I was shocked. They destroyed my atomic kitchen clock by tossing it unwrapped in a box piled with cast iron skillets. It was cracked, scratched and not displaying anything. The worst damage was done to our beautiful armoire. The entire thing is cracked from top to bottom and one of the doors is completely split from it‘s hinge and missing a chunk of wood at least two fingers thick. This is one of those enormous mahogany French armoires, solid wood. We paid nearly 2,000 euros for it seven years ago at one of those posh furniture stores. It took us over 18 months to pay it off and we were dirt poor, but we were of the mind then that we wanted to invest in nice pieces of furniture at the time. Seb who has gone totally modern in his tastes hates the armoire but I still love it which is why it got shipped at all. His attitude is “oh well whatever --it will be a hassle to get any money for it,” but mine is anger because I know the moving guy who dragged it down the stairs while I cringed. The very one who was constantly smoking and doing wolf whistles at middle school girls walking down our street, asking them if they had any body piercing and if they did he’d like to inspect them. This is the guy who disassembled the thing and carried the pieces to the truck and he didn’t have them wrapped which I found strange. I told Seb about the stuff being unwrapped but he just told me to let them do their jobs. In retrospect I should have chased him down the street and said, “get back in that house and do this the right way or LEAVE.” We have moved so many times that I’m learning to be an aggressive pit bull where movers are concerned. Next time there will be no mercy.

Otherwise it’s a huge relief to be able to leave the hotel this weekend and officially take up residence in our new place. Little S was so excited to see his things that he screamed like a groupie at a rock concert. Seb opened several boxes and let him peek inside (huge mistake). Now half the house is littered with toys. But we understand his pleasure and so we’re being tolerant, stepping over cars and little plastic people while trying to get from room to room. Even our cat has a look of relief on her face. She immediately stretched out on our unmade bed and sort of sighed. It was really funny because it’s exactly how we feel.

I hope we’ll have internet soon but knowing Mexico I think it will be slooooooow. If it takes a month in France won’t it take two months in Mexico? I really hope not but I'm going to go ahead and imagine that it will so as not to be too disappointed. I think I will have no choice but to head out to internet cafes once a week. I’m going to be suffering from withdraw for sure.

Meanwhile happy blogging to everyone. I will be eager to catch up on your blogs when I get connected. And to all my friends who I owe e-mails to, don't worry I will be checking in somehow. I haven't forgetten--life is just a little crazy right now. We miss everyone!