Hello February, hello stress

So now it's February, which means I'm supposed to be happier. To some extent I am. Some of the things that are good about February are (1) it's short, (2) it has a cheerful candy holiday in it, and (3) it's followed by the month (March) in which spring begins. In addition, there's more light in February, which makes everything seem better.

But there's no question that I'm more on edge this year than usual. I finally got myself to take a Barbara Pym novel off the bookshelf and put it on my nightstand, but I haven't opened it yet. (Normally I like to spend all of February reading B. Pym.) Still spending most of my time doing puzzles, not reading. I'm pretty sure it's the coming move that's making me jittery. Our progress on said move seems stalled, though we have not changed our tentative dates (late April to early May).

Here's where we stand with the move:

1. Called two movers to come give us quotes.

     a. 1st mover came by, looked at our stuff, and quoted us $18,000. (To be fair, that quote includes packing our breakable stuff. We have since decided to pack everything ourselves.)

     b. 2nd mover didn't call us back. This past week I called them again. They claimed they were just going to call us back and might be able to come over either late in the day Thursday or late in the day Friday. Heard nothing on Thursday. On Friday I checked messages around 2 pm to discover that they had called at 9 am, offering to come by at 10 am. I quickly called them and the nice lady said they couldn't possibly come now, but she'd give us another call next week. I'm not feeling optimistic.

     c. Debating whether or not to call a Bakersfield mover too.

2. Rocket Boy's old SUV needs a smog check this year for us to be able to register it, and we're almost certain it won't pass. So our plan is that he will drive it to Boulder and register it there (as non-operational) with the idea that he will get it fixed later (there's a good Mitsubishi repair guy in Boulder), and then fly back here. Need to choose a date (SOON) for him to do this crazy thing.

3. Need to start freecycling stuff; haven't. Hate freecycle.

4. Every time I tell RB I want to leave something behind (Papasan chair, microwave, old kitchen table, changing table, washer & dryer) because we won't have room for it in the Boulder house and we need to lighten up the moving truck so as not to pay $18,000 for the move, he says, "We could put it in the cabin."

5. Didn't get the job I applied for at the University of Colorado. Remembering vividly what it was like to do temp work when I was 37. Wondering what it will be like to do temp work when I am 52/53.

If you were me, wouldn't you be stressed? Just a little? And there's all that Valentine's Day candy in the stores...

On the other hand, it's still at least two and a half months until our move date. Maybe I should just forget about the move and have a pleasant February.