Last week was kind of a crazy week at work, mostly because we (the office, that is) moved this weekend and so there was all this work leading up to the event that had to be dealt with. Actually, the past month or so has been leading slowly up to the crazy of last week, what with the sorting and the purging and the random piles of stuff that kept piling up in the front lobby either waiting to be carted off to the dump or a recycling place, or the random piles of boxes that kept piling up near one of the extra work stations, full of things for the new place.  There have been scheduled posted and lists made and checked off, and great piles of boxes delivered, waiting for us to assemble them and then fill them with stuff. And last week we slid head on into the full-scale panic packing mode, which is bad enough trying to do if you are moving your own self, but even worse when you are doing it in a work environment where you are also supposed to be trying to get actual *work* done at the same time.

The actual move happened this weekend, and I do not think I need to say how truly happy I was that last Friday just so happened to be my Flex Day, which meant I got to avoid the very last day of pre-move panic. I just got to show up Monday morning at the new office space. I would say it all happened without me having to lift a finger, but that would be a lie, because someone had to disassemble all the computers and stuff them into boxes and cart them, manually, over to the new space, and that someone, by the way, would be me.

But now we are all moved in, and even though it is going to be a week or so before the office looks more like an office and less like a box hurricane hit it, we are all quite happy about the whole thing. The new space is prettier and newer and just nicer overall. The old building we were in was quirky and had lots of natural light and was right on the river so we had amazing views and got to see all kinds of wildlife and it had a lot of very good qualities. But it also was an older building and didn’t have very good insulation in the walls and I spent the last five years listening to the lawyers downstairs shriek obscenities at each other (I always wondered why they continued to work with each other if they hated each other that much, but maybe that is just how they got in shape for the courtroom. Who knows) and the past three years listening to the neighbors next door drop heavy boxes on the floor over my head Every Freaking Day, or decide to play their music extra loud even though they had been told numerous times, quite politely, by both us and the landlord, that we could hear them.

When I got in yesterday I set up my desk and hooked up my computer and when the IT guy arrived he showed me how to hook up all the computers to the network (by the way, whoever installed the firewall and the hub and all the rest of the networking and server gear is much, much taller than I am, and I can see that maybe keeping a step stool in the server room might be a good idea) and we got everyone online and running. I took advantage of the fact that our new space has a lovely, private balcony and I ate my lunch outside, looking out over the river. And I  marveled at how quiet my office is – although the AC system is so loud that even if there were lawyers hollering at the top of their lungs below me I am not sure I would hear them in this new space.

Of course, another side benefit to having recently moved our office is that there are now all these lovely, sturdy packing boxes being emptied that would otherwise be dumped in the recycling bin if it weren’t for the fact that I am snagging as many as I can get my hands on. The designer dropped off the full, final plans for us – including the structural engineer’s report – and a copy is now in the hands of our contractor so that he can hash out a more comprehensive idea of schedule and budget. I’ve already gotten a few volunteers to come help us do our own demo (because seriously, who *wouldn’t* relish the opportunity to take a sledgehammer to ugly kitchen cabinetry without fear of reprisal because we are not going to save one damn thing in there!), so now it is just a little waiting game – waiting to find out how long the contractor needs to get the kitchen to the point where the cabinets can be installed, so that we can finally pick a start date. And then all these boxes I am carefully salvaging from this oh-so-conveniently timed office move will be put to good use for packing away our entire kitchen. Soon. So very soon.