My home-buying experience has been insane. Yes, there’s the probably haunted house, but there has also been crooked contractors, hurricanes, and multiple closing postponements. It’s been stressful and insane. So when the sellers (family friends) said I could start moving in over the weekend, I was relieved.

My mother, aunt, and I started moving a few small things on Friday and cleaning while it was still empty. On Saturday the moving started in earnest. We got my storage unit emptied and most of my stuff into the house by early afternoon. Then I wandered in circles for awhile, not sure what else to do. My cousin took off to help her mom get her phone fixed. My mom said she was going to run home and return with food. This left my friend Melissa and I to search my boxes for utensils. So I was buried behind a bunch of boxes when I heard honking and pounding on my door.

I thought I was being home-invaded before I’d even officially bought the place. 

Rather than a maniac, I found my best-friend, Allison, standing on my front step with an ice cream cake. There was going to be a party in my house and I couldn’t even find my knives and forks. Luckily, Allison had thought of just about everything. From chairs to food to paper towels to decorations, the party came to me.

And that was how a month after my birthday and my original closing date, I came to have the housewarming/birthday party I had postponed indefinitely… and cry on my front steps before I’d even finished moving in.