So last week was a pretty gigantic one for me and for Dan together. And I’m feeling like I need a week to recover from my week off. Dan and I both have made a habit of taking the week that contains both of our birthdays off from work, and it’s a tradition I completely adore. Last year’s Birthday Week Extravaganza was one of the best weeks, ever. This year’s birthday week ended up being moving week, and while I was reluctant to surrender the All Birthday All The Time mentality, having a full week plus a few days on each end to deal with everything having to do with moving out of two separate places and into a new one, together, was completely vital.

Here are some of the highlights, as well as some photos I want to preserve for posterity.

I started the week off with a Harry Potter double feature with my brother and a few of his friends. We saw Deathly Hallows Part 1 at 9pm, and then Part 2 at midnight on Thursday. And it was AMAZING. Both to see them back to back, to be seeing it at midnight, the first moment we could, and the movies themselves. Dan has never seen the movies, so we’ve been rewatching all of the Harry Potter movies amid moving, and having this story I love as an anchor has been kind of nice.

The first weekend was spent doing projects at our new place with my parents. We painted over the ugly mint green walls in the dining room (and I totally forgot to take before pictures!) and put up blinds and curtains. We went out to dinner with Dan’s family to celebrate his birthday, my birthday, and his brother’s birthday, which is also within a week. And Dan ate a one pound burger and then had to pose with a stuffed cheeseburger.

Then we had to go back to the couch drawing board, after our first choice ended up being way, way too big. We went to several stores and I got to experience the joy of someone who is both very tall and has exacting requirements about how high the back of a couch should be, and exactly how his feet should rest on a recliner or ottoman. Luckily, we finally found a couch and a recliner that we both love, that were super on sale, AND that didn’t come in ugly colors. We also spend an incredibly fun afternoon at Ikea, where I yet again drooled over Expedits, but where we bought necessary but not as jazzy things such as a table for Dan’s desk, coffee table, and some end tables. (And meatballs.) Oh, and we saw a Somerset Patriots game for Dan’s birthday on Monday night.

Of course, the part that I’m leaving out to save time is that in between all of these bigger errands and fun birthday things were multiple trips in both of our cars between my old apartment and our new one, and between HIS old apartment and our new one. Every time we were passing by, we dropped stuff off. We really just used up every moment, and had very little time to just sit.

(my color-coded box labeling system actually got COMPLIMENTS, you guys. Not laughter. I’m still shocked. Each room had a color, and then I also wrote on the label what was in each box. It was both pretty and helpful!)

Wednesday was Moving Day, or The Day With The Truck where we emptied my old apartment. I’m infinitely grateful to my parents, my brother, and my sister and her boyfriend for yet again carrying all of my shit. Especially to John, James, Dan and my dad for getting the orange couch out of my apartment over the balcony. (That couch went to my parents’ house, where it is PERFECT in my old bedroom, or the room they are now calling the “back bedroom”.)

It was a long, hot, sweaty day, but we had bagels and pizza from the (very, very tasty) pizza place we can now walk to, and we got a ton of unpacking done, too. Then Dan and I drove into New Brunswick for microbrewed beer and greasy food.

Thursday was my birthday, which I’ve written about already. 30 wasn’t like any other birthdays I’ve had, but it was good to get some unpacking done, and to get dressed up to head into Princeton for my usual trio of Paper Source, Triumph Brewery, and Bent Spoon cupcakes.

On Friday our furniture was delivered, which was pretty fantastic, not only because we finally had a place to sit in the living room. And then we drove down to Lakewood to see the Blueclaws play, which was more fun than you’d think given the 90+ degree weather. And Saturday, we spent a long time at Dan’s old apartment so he could pack and so we could (blissfully) just sit and watch a movie. Sunday was the day I finally unpacked more, and the day that allowed me to finally feel like we’re settling in.

(my parents surprised me with a giant bunch of birthday balloons. when was the last time you had balloons? they are SO fun.)

Now that I’m back at work, people keep asking “how’s the new apartment?” and “how was the move?” and all I can come up with is that it was COMPLETELY EXHAUSTING. Amazing, frustrating, stressful, fun, and oh yeah, our birthdays were in there too, but just so exhausting. I’m physically, mentally, and emotionally just full. And a bit overwhelmed. But now it’s Tuesday night, and I’m typing this while sitting on my new couch next to my red striped and yellow striped throw pillows while watching a baseball game, and I’m finally starting to feel like this is really, really, really good. But I’m also glad to be getting back to normal life. Because enough with the Big Stuff for a while, right?