Monthly Archives: October 2015

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,691 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—9,460 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Each Other/Get ‘er Done Intermediate Level Merit Badge, my friends organized a sneak attack. You see, they knew about my Merit Badge addiction hobby, and they were waiting for a good opportunity to strike.

One of them decided to move.

Yeah.

That glorious life change of changing houses.

Boxes, boxes, and more boxes, as far as the eyes could see.

Photo by Mixe2021 via Wikimedia Commons

And they knew I would roll up my sleeves and help a farmgirl out.

I’d be resentful of their cotton-pickin’, strategic, evil-genius-like, shenanigans … if I weren’t so begrudgingly admiring of them.

So, roll up my sleeves I did, and we were off for a full weekend of that great American pastime: moving.

There was an eight-hour minimum time commitment involved in earning my Badge, and just the thought made me laugh maniacally and curl up in the fetal position. I had already promised to finish the job with my pal—eight hours smeight hours—so I was in it for the long haul.

Get it? Haul? U-Haul? Hah.

I could probably earn six Intermediate Level Badges with the contents of this gal’s house, I swear. Minimalist, she is not.

Groan. Throw myself prostate on the floor.

Weep a little.

But back to work! At least it’s not the Hottest Day of the Year, or the Rainiest, or the Coldest (which is when I tend to my own personal moving days in the past). I could probably control weather patterns just by scheduling moving days, actually. Something to think about as a career, Janey: meteorologist/professional mover. Hm. If the Organic Sushi on a Stick Drive-Thru doesn’t pan out …

Unpacking and putting things away in a new house is kinda fun. Packing and cleaning the old house? Not. So. Fun. About as much fun as gnawing off your own eyebrows, which is basically what I felt like doing 7.5 hours in. We started off organized enough: boxes labeled in nice black permanent marker, helpful things like Kitchen Baking, or Non-fiction Books, or Pantry Dry Goods. But then, exhaustion and hunger and wild-eyed craziness set it, and pretty soon I was labeling boxes Lift with Your Legs, Dummy, and Why Do You Even Need These? and These Could Be Replaced at the Dollar General So Why Are You Making Me Pack Them? and my personal favorite, I Sold My Soul to Pack Your Junk Drawer.

I was getting hangry (angry due to hunger), so we stopped for a pizza break. After a nice slice (or four) of a Hawaiian and Jalapeno special, I felt slightly less sarcastic and umm … slightly less like I might murder the next person who misplaced the packing tape. We settled back into a rhythm of wrap, pack, tape, label, repeat, and before we knew it approximately three lifetimes later, we were done.

Well, except for the cleaning of the old house so she can get her deposit back.

Groan.

Weep.

Throw myself prostrate on the floor.

There better be another badge in it for me. I don’t know if I can make it.

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