See this post at ChangingZipCodes.com.  It’s a wonderful site with some information that makes so much sense.

Cool, confident, collected. I kept repeating the words as I tried to pull open the door to my new job.  And then, hiccup.  I know when my nerves kick in, so do the hiccups.  Still, I kept moving forward.  Unfortunately I smacked right into a locked door.  Hiccup! I found the black phone attached to the wall to make an overhead page so someone would let me in.

What exactly do you say?  “Uh, I’m Mollie, I’m new.  Can someone let me…hiccup!”

It seems I forget the details during moves.  Then, I get nervous but I don’t know it until the hiccups start.  With this particular move I had started packing weeks in advance, so the day of the move was less stressful.  In my cleverness I packed too many essentials too early and I couldn’t find everything. “I’m doing good!” I had said to my cat, Charlie, as I packed out each corner with some underwear, “What a space saver I am!”  The problem was, each box had underwear in it, and some of those boxes are still at my parents’ house.  Also, if I could do it over, I would not have put the white lace underwear inside the dirty coffee mug.

I have a friend who is organized in her packing.  She numbers each box, and puts a star sticker on it when it is done.  The sticker is color-coordinated to a room, and the number is listed on an excel spreadsheet that is printed off and stuck in clear plastic protectors.  Each number has the room the box belongs in, its contents, and any special notes, like “open first” or “breakables.”  I wonder if I could use those plastic protectors to protect my underwear against coffee stains next time?

Before moving day I felt them coming as I packed my little blue compact car, hic…hic…hiccup!  My friend brought his large SUV which I also packed to the bursting brim.  Each car had a walkie-talkie and that was amazing.

However, my friend does not own a cell phone so we only had my cell phone. When he missed the exit, the walkie-talkies were useless since they were out of range.  I sat in my cramped car at a hotel parking lot smelling the cardboard boxes. I hoped he would turn around and find the exit. I faced the traffic light, repeating directions.  Everyone who as on that channel could hear the same thing over and over.  I hiccuped while I looked at the only cell phone, the only map, the only GPS unit, and the only written location of the hotel sitting on my center console.

My friend finally found me, and with a shrug said, “I got close enough to hear the directions, but had to turn off the walkie-talkie.  I couldn’t understand anything past the hiccups. Besides, I was filling up at that gas station across the street.”

The next hiccup occurred when paying for my medications.  I had planned on ordering them at the local pharmacy before moving so that I had a supply to back me up while I looked for a new pharmacy in the new city. I procrastinated.

It cost me triple what I usually paid, details that would have avoided more hiccups.  On the other hand, I made sure I was caught up on other appointments before leaving, like that important haircut and color, a dental checkup and a medical check-up.  Hmm, maybe the doctor could have helped with those hiccups.

I have found that my major hiccups, and the situations that resulted in those hiccups, are much better to handle with a plan.  So, plan for the unplanned.  Have extra of everything and a phone close by in each vehicle and a GPS app for it.  Take extra underwear, even if you don’t get it into labeled boxes with special stickers and plastic protectors.  Then you will be cool, calm, and collected if the hiccups arrive.

What hiccups have you experienced? Let me know on Facebook at HopelesslyHopefulBooks.

Photo above by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash

© 2020, Mollie Bond. All rights reserved. Originally published at www.molliebond.wordpress.com.