Sometimes unpacking your stuff after a move is like opening a gift you gave someone else and discovering they’ve re-wrapped it and gave it back to you. Sometimes, you discover old treasures anew. Then there are the cryptic labels on the boxes that, when you slice open the box, you wonder how the packers decided to label it the way they did.

Today, I unpacked the kitchen. Now, if you’re thinking, wait a minute. She got her stuff last Friday, and she’s just unpacking the kitchen today, what gives? Then you just don’t know me as well as you think you do. If you were thinking, she probably has everything else unpacked and realizes she has to get the kitchen done, you’re not quite right either, but you do know me. No, the kitchen is not my favorite place. Although, the kitchen in this house is nice. It has plenty of cabinet space–a good third of which will require me to successfully enter into the NBA free agency negotiations to use them. Maybe that’s where old seven footers go when they can’t cut it on the court anymore. A second career as a kitchen go-fer. But I digress…

I unpacked most of the boxes in the master bedroom. Clothing is now sorted on my bed in two or three sizes–what I can wear now and what I could wear last year. I purged nearly everything from before that by giving it away before the move. I need to put that stuff away before I can go to bed tonight. Now, I need to start the march back to the earlier sizes.

That need prompted me to pull out the crock pot this morning and toss in some veggies and boullion to make a tasty soup. Ingredients: one small head green cabbage, two baking potatoes, 16 oz bag of carrots, one white onion, and two boullion cubes. I chopped all these goodies up, added water, and put them on low to cook down. Season to taste. I like it. If you want to call it a stew, add some stew meat, but today’s version is meatless. Then I unpacked my cutting board.

It looks like the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy have finally made it to the area. Light rain has just begun, and I heard thunder in the distance. Fortunately, my new neighbors three doors down got all their stuff moved in about an hour ago (it looks like their move went the way mine should have gone). (In the time it took to finish this post, we have graduated to heavy rain–or, as bloglines weather predicted, “tons of rain.”)

What’s next for unpacking? Am I ready to tackle the library yet? I don’t know; that sounds like a weekend effort…I’m trying something new this time. I dedicated the second of three bedrooms to be a library, and I had all book boxes and bookshelves delivered to that room–the stereo, 65-70 boxes of books, four bookshelves, and a six foot bookshelf I brought back from Texas that’s sitting in the garage waiting for hubby to find the metal shelf holders before I can use it. I also need to paint the large bookshelf some version of brown to more closely match the other bookshelves. The comfy fainting couch hubby and I found on his last trip to Virginia is in there too. All I need to find is a good reading lamp.

The dining room, hereafter referred to as the office, still needs some detail work done, but the furniture is in place, and the computers are fully operational. (See, this is the cool thing about living alone–you can use the rooms in your house for whatever you darn well please.)

That’s enough pontification, er, philosophizing, for now. Back to work. Eventually, I simply must find my dictionary and thesaurus. I’m lost without them.