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We Did It

So I did it. It's done.

We woke up at four am. He packed his half of the overnight bag just in case we had to borrow money from my brother and stay in a hotel (or in case the house was too gross and we needed a change of clothes after). I made coffee.

He started to drive. We played the alphabet game (which is pretty rough in rural Pennsylvania). He won. Twice. Anxiousness was giving me heartburn so I was munching on Tums while he snacked on frosted animal crackers.

The drive took four hours. I had told him about how disgusting our toilet was (I still don't know why it was like that, my brother and I have tried to clean it so many times), so we stopped to get gas and pee before going to my house.

We went to grab bagels for my family, but when I asked the bagel guy who knows my family what they always order, he told me that they had already been in. So my boyfriend and I just ate our bagels in the car.

We pulled up to the house. I felt weird. I didn't know if I was supposed to knock or just walk in. I called my mom as we went up the walkway, but she didn't answer. She was already standing in the doorway.

My boyfriend didn't tour the house. I didn't get to say goodbye. I didn't want to. I think. It didn't occur to me at the time that it would be something I would have wanted to do and now it's too late.

We cleaned at a breakneck pace, just to get the trash off the floor so we could bring the dogs in from the car. Our dogs are quiet and good and just sat in the closet away from the scary vacuum cleaner.

We worked from 10 am until 5 pm. We cleared everything out.

We donated probably seven 50-gallon garbage bags of clothes and miscellaneous junk to Goodwill. Probably 400-500 books went to the library. And ten trashbags just full of rubbish.

We took too much with us. I already have another 20 or so books to donate to a library sorted out. He's going to help me this weekend. There was some stuff that frazzled me so we just kept it to say goodbye later.

But it's done now.

I don't ever have to go back.

I wish I could have given him a tour of the town. But I didn't and that's okay.

He got hurt partway through the day on a patch of ice. Hurt real bad. So we just went home as quick as we could.

I only cried in the car ride home.

I'm relieved it's done and I think we had done it the best way. I just wish I had thought to say goodbye to the town.

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