Monday will be a day of reckoning at my work place. It is the day we move to our new building. There are approximately 80 offices that need to be emptied and moved to the new building. Over 300 boxes of patient records will be moved. All the omens predict chaos.
The renovations at the new building are not complete. There still is no internet. Some offices don’t have electricity yet. The new office and waiting room furniture will arrive on Monday just as the moving company will be moving in all our computers, boxes, filing cabinets, supplies, and everything else we are taking with us. It will take all week for the new furniture to be installed. The cardboard boxes that we were provided with from Walmart are reluctant to let tape adhere, so I foresee bottoms crashing out of boxes as they are moved. Somehow, in the midst of this, we have to attend to our crisis and emergency clients, and see clients via telehealth from our homes.
I am responsible for four offices, including two offices in which we give people tests, my play therapy room, and my personal office. I filled 45 rather large boxes with books, test manuals, toys, office supplies, paper tests and test kits, four computers and their monitors, and our telephones for each office. I also had to label each piece of furniture with the number of the new offices to which they are to be delivered. We didn’t have the new office numbers until last Thursday, so I spent Thursday and Friday feverishly labeling my boxes and furniture. I am thankful that a psychometrist and another psychologist from the Bismarck office are coming on Wednesday to help me unpack and set up the testing offices.
The move has been a physical challenge for me. The boxes are heavy. I removed bulletin boards that were screwed to the wall while standing on top of desks. I had to disassemble a large room divider for one of the testing rooms. Monday morning I have to go to the new building and remove two unnecessary desk peninsulas that are attached to the walls in the testing rooms so that there is room for the Psychology filing cabinets. The construction company says it isn’t in their contract to do so. I better not lose my purse, since that is where I stored all the nuts and bolts and filing cabinet keys.
There is no one to blame for this. Our regional director worked hard to get the movers, furniture delivery, internet installation, and building construction to align with the deadline from the college that owns our old building to be out by July 20. It is hard to control the outcome with so many different working parts. I am hopeful that by the end of the week things will be back to normal.
What is the biggest project you have been involved with? Do you plan or follow others’ plans?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Shine Baboons,
The last big project I had did not go well, but that is unusual. Generally I am good at such things. This was a professional visit from a credentialing agency. There were just too many things creating heavy headwinds last Fall when this occurred, including a knee surgery, a very strange person in charge, and a new intern. Then we were to have a second, on-line re-assessment, but the pandemic came along, creating even more problems. So we delayed the whole thing til next summer.
I don’t know what kind of chaos has taken over our existence in the last 5 years, but it seems like we are fighting chaos constantly. The header picture says it all to me—as if every one of my jigsaw puzzles were emptied into a bin and now we must sort it out. Good choice, Renee.
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Now there’s an idea. Combine the pieces of two, three, or more puzzles in one box, and market them according to degree of difficulty. tim, have at it before the next pandemic hits.
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I have a work friend who would rather cut new jigsaw pieces to fit rather than search for the correct piece in the pile. Maybe that is the way to do things.
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Thanks! I thought the photo really fit the bill.
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Good photo, Renee, but even a better description of your challenges. Good luck with all that!
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Oh Renee – as I read this I was planning to ask whose fault is all this, till your last paragraph. Arrggghhh! Things like that construction company refusing to help remove those desk peninsulas drive me nuts.
Every move to a new home has been biggest project, esp. when moving to a new community. And then organizing that UU Book Sale last fall is high on the list… And speaking in front of a group, which Husband and I did last winter at our UU Fellowship – was a big deal for us and took tons of time to coordinate.
I like to be at least one of the organizers in a project, so I have a reasonable amt. of control about everything, but I never go in without knowing there is plenty of help.
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Our regional director is very young, like in her early 30’s, and I am happy to say that she is relying on the advice and help of several of us older women at the agency in solving some of the logistical problems. (Women outnumber men at my agency 10:1). She was pretty shook up by an angry encounter with one of the guys who owns our new building, and it helped her when we could assure her that he has a reputation in town as a real jerk, and that he treats everyone poorly, and she shouldn’t take it personally.
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Easily the most painful and complicated task I ever did was selling my home and moving. First, the house had to be emptied and fixed up. Then there was the sale, followed by moving to a new home half a continent away. Something like that is sure to be difficult, but doing all that while old and crippled was the worst of it. Objectively speaking, each step of the process was impossible, and yet somehow that doesn’t matter. Somehow, all the steps got taken, and here we are.
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Renee I do not envy you this move.
I’ve been wondering what was my biggest project. I’ve probably forgotten it.
Addition to our house? But that was 25 years ago.
Helped get a theater remodel open? But I only came in for the last couple weeks.
Dealing with a theater remodeling now, and I have lost some sleep over that… but it’s just two bathrooms and some minor walls; nothing serious.
This week I have things scheduled 4 out of 5 days. Which annoys me; I like to have days at home, which I have kinda gotten used too this summer. And I’ll still have some afternoons but still. Nothing like a full day at home.
Good Luck Renee!
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I got one of the desk extensions removed. The psychometrist can remove the other one on Wednesday. Two very nice Hispanic construction workers carried it to a storage area for me. It was an interesting scene, with movers, construction workers, furniture installers, tech guys, and cleaners all dancing around one another, with Spanish language popular music blaring on a radio.
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You sound like you’re in a pretty good mood, considering.
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In the 30+ years that I’ve worked at BIAW, I think I’ve moved at least 16 or 17 times. Luckily, they’ve got the whole move thing down to a very precision art.
The funniest move that was about three years ago when a whole mass of us moved from building five to building three. For some reason this really threw people into a snit and when they started putting empty boxes out a good three weeks or so before the move, people started hoarding them. And people started packing up their cubes 34 weeks ahead of time. I never did understand it. People would say to me “when are you going to pack” and I told them I was going to start packing at 3:30 on Friday afternoon. Really if you can’t put all of your stuff in a cube into boxes in an hour, what in heavens name is going on. I actually managed to get everything done by 4:15, just 45 minutes.
Luckily, all I had to worry about was my cube. No other file cabinets or rooms or toys or anything else. Hang in there Renee!!
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Thanks. I am doing ok. I was at the new building a couple of times, and will go back tomorrow for a while to organize and unpack. I might try to take off the other desk peninsula. There was a lovely, gentle rain this morning which made watering the garden unnecessary and spared me time in the garden.
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Wish you Godspeed with the rest of it!
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I remember midway through high school, the brand new super duper building was finished, and we had a moving day (or two?). That must have taken some organizing! We were organized by Home Room, and each kid was responsible for at least one box of something. I don’t remember anything else about it, so it must have gone smoothly. I do remember being sort of in awe at the new open-plan stairways…
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My biggest project was buying my house and doing the remodeling work. Some of it I did myself, some of it hired out. The kitchen remodel was mostly professionally done, except for tiling the kitchen counters. My sister and I did that. My friend Mindy helped me rip out the old carpeting. Lots of painting and wallpapering. The first six months in the house left me in a state of exhaustion.
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You are absolutely a great writer. I like your all online activity. Please write your next update on moving after corona.
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