A year ago at this time, I was living in an apartment that I once loved, but had to get out of as soon as I could due to the fact that the people I lived with made an apartment that I once considered the best place I ever lived in completely unlivable. In making that very crucial move, I had to pack my life away and move into the apartment I currently live in. I have lived here since July 18, 2003 and will continue to live here only until this coming Friday – which is the day I move out.

While I always liked this apartment, I knew from day one that it was temporary. While I have spent many years in the apartments I have lived in, I knew that I would not be spending more than a year here – because although I feel at home here – this apartment is not a home.

Although the apartment itself is very nice and the building is great to live in – it is, for one thing – too small. Walking from one side of the apartment to the other takes only 32 of my paces. Basically, if you put wheels on this place – it would be a van. And the other fact that it is a four-story walk-up makes biking home unwelcoming and forgetting something at the store more of a pain than normal. But on the flipside, it was always quiet, I got great cross ventilation – and while I may be very eager to move – I know that I will miss living here when I am gone.

As exciting is moving is, the act of moving is anything but. Being a life-long “place for everything and everything in it’s place” kind of guy, I do not enjoy having to box up my entire life and relocate it – only to find a new place for everything. If I had my way, I would never move again – which is something I swear to each time I move – only to eventually move again anyway.

This is – ironically – the 13th time I have moved in my life. When I was born in 1972, I lived in an apartment located in Sheepshead Bay on Avenue T and 16th Street. I then moved to an apartment building on Ocean Avenue, also in Sheepshead Bay. From there, we moved to 946 East 29th Street only to move across the street to 951 a year later. When I was 14, my mom and I moved to East 19th and Avenue U, then to Emmons Avenue in the heart of Sheepshead Bay when she got her own co-op. My first move out of my mother’s house was when I moved in with my ex-wife Elisabeth on Avenue T and East 8th Street in 1992. In 1996, I moved into my first apartment on Brigham Street and Avenue X and lived there until 1998, when I moved into my now ex-girlfriend Lisa’s apartment. In 1999, I moved back in with my mom until Christmas 1999 when I moved in with Sandy until we found my apartment on Bergen Avenue in March of 2000 – the one that was ruined by the aforementioned associates. I lived there until July 18, 2003 – when I moved in here.

I can still remember the first day I lived here so vividly. It was the Friday after I signed the lease and I spent the night because I planned to clean the apartment over the weekend. So I grabbed my futon mattress and a knapsack full of clothes and headed to what would become my new apartment. From the moment I opened my eyes that first morning – I knew that I could never go back living in the apartment on Bergen Avenue even though I still had two weeks before moving day – so I grabbed Beavis that morning and only went back to Bergen Avenue after work each day to get some things – and then came back to my new place to sleep every night thereafter.

Despite the fact that I am once again moving on Friday, I have not packed a single thing yet. For one thing, I hate packing so much that I keep putting it off – and the other reason is because I am so worried about Beavis that I am not going to pack until the very last minute so he is as least terrified as possible. Despite my care for him, I know that this move is going to freak him out no matter what I do and I feel so guilty because I know it will be very hard on him for the first week or so, but both Christine and I will be there for him and will give him lots of love and attention as he adjusts to his new home.

With 96 hours until moving day, my plan is to wake up tomorrow morning and pack the day away. The good news is I do not have that much stuff, so packing should be a snap – what won’t be is moving – because each trip from the van to this apartment is a four flight walk – I can hardly wait.

It’s no wonder I want to retire in a mobile home.