Tuesday, December 17, 2013

I Love Tape and Star Wars... and tape...

I don't see how the Empire could be powerful enough to control the galaxy and still lose to an army of teddy bears   :confused:

The Empire did not lose to a bunch of teddy bears. They lost because of the damned wookie.





For the past few days I have slept some. I have eaten some. And I have packed more boxes than I ever care to again.  I know good and well I will more than likely be repeating the process again in 2014 twice - once to finish this move and another to hopefully move from the apartment into a more permanent residence. I. AM. NOT. AMUSED.  Okay, I'm better. Just had to get that out. Phew.  

What is tickling my "not so funny bone" during this weird adventure is "tape." 

Since the first time I encountered the wonderfully sticky substance and wrapped my first present using GOBS of it, tape has been my friend. It's versitile, handy and my "go-to" adhesive for many things.  Let's face it, without duct tape the world would be in sorry shape. Who needs the force? I am Obi Wan with duct tape. 

But packing tape is an entirely different story. 

It's not like duct tape, electrical tape, scotch tape, strapping tape, etc. It has it's own handled dispenser which my husband handles as if he were Luke Skywalker brandishing his light saber against Darth Vader in the Battle of Endor.  I operate it like an Ewok trying to fly a sky rider while a storm trooper is after me.  It's a bloody mess. My husband is a Packing Tape Jedi Knight. Yoda is he. In awe am I. 

Yoda stated earlier to me he was tired of going to war with the Boxes.  He said, "After days of battle, I'm tired and sore. And if I have to hear the sound of tape again..."

I tuned out the Jedi Master. 

With all of the tape I have ever wielded, I have never once given thought to the sound it makes coming off the roll.  We battled another box and it yielded it the tape. Each strip held a sound different from the last as it howled its battle cry. 

As we sealed the last box for part one of the journey, Yoda was exhausted, but victorious. He never wants to hear the tape emit any sound as long as he lives. He deserves a long, winter's nap. Personally, I want to know if packing tape would have finished building the other half of the Death Star (or maybe that's really the job of packing tape's big brother duct tape.) I think I'm going to have to find a Wookie and ask... 

Metamorphosis

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again.” 
~ Eric Roth~
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Screenplay)


I've lived in one city my entire life. I've lived within five miles of the house I grew up in, though I have moved several times. For all practical purposes, this place has been my cocoon, even though I have very much wanted to "escape" to other places or sometimes drifted away mentally and felt as though I was living my own "Secret Life of Walter Mitty." 

Today is the last day that "officially" my family will really be together.  My husband is being transferred to Dallas and we have found an apartment in the spanning metroplex 350 miles away.  Tomorrow the movers come and we will be transporting much of the household to another place "far, far away." Some of our belongings will stay here while I'm still here searching for a new job, another story all together.  Then move #2 will happen. (Please insert sarcastic sounding joyful giddyness here.) 

It's the genesis of an empty nest. My kids are of the age where they are branching out, trying new things and becoming individuals I am proud of. But it's also a scary thing too. I'm ready, but not ready.  

While going through things and packing up a lifetime of belongings, it's amazing the things I have kept. I know why I have kept much of it - I'm a sentimental fool. But moving this stuff, I just want to say, "F-it. Throw the lot of it out. I'm done." But then emotion tugs at me and I just can't do it. I'm a sentimental fool. 

The moving truck arrives in the morning and all I can do is hope things arrive in one piece... or arrive at all. This whole thing though explains why I haven't blogged in a while. However, as my darling husband is in the land of Far, Far Away, I'm sure I'll have some food for thought as I go about a season of change... rather like the butterflies who have to emerge from the safety and comfort of their cocoons if they want to fly.  (BTW...The blue ones are my favorite.)