Moving Out
Moving out was a three-phase process. Phase one involved moving the non-essential… crap… that I would not have any use for during the remaining two weeks of the year. Phase two involved the demolition of the loft bed. Phase three polished it off, turning what was once my home at JMU back into an empty dorm room. Come with me as I turn what was seen on the Web Cam and in College Life (here, to be specific) back into emptiness, taking all that is physical with me, and leaving memories behind.
Phase 1 – The Excess Stuff
My fire alarm collection is readied for taking home, with back-boxes on some of the signals with more-delicate backs in order to protect them during transport. Also, if you look at the full-size image, you can see a Web Cam image on the computer screen of me taking this picture.
Filling the tubs up… gotta love that.
Three down, two more to go! As a side note, it’s amazing how much a dorm room will hold…
As with all the wall decor, these two posters were taken down and placed aside in preparation for moving out.
All the while, the Web Cam watches from its perch on the loft bed, unaffected by this phase.
And the first load of stuff is in the car, and off to Stuarts Draft we go!
Phase 2 – Loft Demolition
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The Web Cam had to go for this job, for the structure that the camera sat on was being demolished.
Mattress, comforter, and pillow, all freshly pulled off the loft, were removed and placed aside for the time being. Made entry and exit rough, but it worked.
The box-spring was removed, and joined the mattress by the door.
The thing that made the loft bed demolition particularly difficult was that I was taking it down around the computer, plus a wire was running across the room for Web Cam coverage. Thus the rule was “do not damage, hit, or otherwise disturb the computer”. With a week to go, you see, and a lot of wires back there, it wasn’t worth it to remove the computer before taking down the loft.
Loft’s down! Now it’s time to haul it out. The wire you see in the foreground at the bottom of the picture is the Web Cam cord.
Mecca, being the wonderful person she is, let me use the chair-dolly things from downstairs to carry the stuff out. It worked out nicely, but the loft parts were just a hair too wide to get past the suites in the center of the hallway.
I thought the elevator door was wider than it ended up being. I got stuck because a pile of boards was too wide to make it into the elevator. While I was banging around trying to make it go in, the elevator door began to close. There was room for the inside door to close, but not for the outside door to close. So I let the outer door close, pushed the button again, and ended up dragging the stuff in SIDEWAYS.
The original plan was to take the loft home and store it. However, I realized a few things before I got to the car. First of all, the loft warped some during the year, and was somewhat difficult to disassemble as a result. So imagine reassembly… not worth it. Also, since I would be an RA in Potomac Hall the next fall, I would have my own room. No need for the loft bed. And for my senior year, I figure I’ll either be an RA again or live off campus. So… no more loft! JMU Recycling can have it. They can turn it into mulch, I don’t know…
Phase 3: The Empty Room
First thing to get packed is the less-necessary computer parts. A scanner is by no means essential, and so into the box it goes!
Following this went the printer. Necessary, but I wasn’t planning on printing anything in the next few hours, so out it goes.
VCRs are gone, printer is gone, scanner is gone…
And all the while, the computer is still humming away, because I’m listening to Bill Cosby MP3s!
However, all good things must come to an end. The MP3s have been stopped, and thus these walls will not hear Bill Cosby anymore. Out to the car for the computer!
Following suit, the monitor goes right afterwards.
Even our lovely lady from the yearbook (whom Andrew Dudik thinks he knows) has to come down. Trust me, she’s coming with me…
Now it’s time to haul out the carpet. Now trust me… this is a $300 rug. I am not pitching this thing. It survived incredibly well, and I rolled it up and stored it in Potomac’s storage room, along with the refrigerator. No sense taking those home, since I’m going to be living in Potomac again… Note my leather chair and the mattress outside in the hallway for the time being.
Now comes the fun part… getting the stuff over the roll of carpet in order to finish moving the carpet.
And let’s not forget the door… with my moving out, it’s no longer exactly the home of The Schumin Web, and so the sign must go…
And thus 409 is reduced to an empty room.
I bring the last of the stuff out to the car, and then close the hatch.
Going back up, I checked out with Tansy (since Eddie was already doing follow-up inspections on the rooms), and handed over the key.
And we say goodbye to a tired Potomac Hall. And I do mean tired – if the building had a face, it would be sagging because there would be no strength left to hold it up. The elevators were overworked (but didn’t break!), the study lounges were locked, the TV lounges became places to donate stuff, the rooms were emptied, the hallways were trashed, the insides of the elevators (both wings) were trashed, and the grounds were a mess from cars, people, and trash. Thankfully, the building is overhauled after every year, where they scrub it down and repair what needs repairing before the summer camps arrive.
