An Attack or a Gift?

Labor Day weekend is supposed to be fun! A last hoorah before school and work and fall routines occur again. Why do we make this weekend the worst possible by making it moving weekend? Maybe there is a way for me to avoid that in the future. Nonetheless, I did not have a final hoorah, I moved. It was long, arduous, mind-numbing work. I'll spare you the details and the pain, I doubt I could communicate that worthily enough. I'll sum up and say that at 3am Sunday morning my three new best friends had successfully helped me move everything I own to my new apartment. Sunday I was able to unpack and try to get some things organized. I was ahead of the game. My roommate was planning to bring all of her things on Monday. This is where my delightful story begins.

On the side of our house we have a patio that wraps around to the front of our building. There is a gate there and it is usually locked. For the weekend of our move we had asked the landlord to open it for us because it would be easier to carry things through the sliding glass door as opposed to our front door. Sunday night I went to sleep, anxiously thinking about all the things I had ahead of me the next morning. When I woke up I looked outside my window and saw that there were things outside the glass door on the ground. My first thought was that my roommate had a burst of energy during the night and decided to move some items and just leave them outside. I thought, "Oh, she should have woken me up, I would have opened the door for her!" Upon closer observance I noticed a toaster. She and I had discussed the fact that neither of us would be bringing a toaster to the house. Perplexed, I went to look closer. As I walked toward the glass door I was amazed at what I found.
This is the only picture I took. It captures a lot, although not all. Someone had come during the night, laid out a carpet and carefully piled junk all over it. As I looked I noticed that a lot of care went into this gift on my porch. My favorite part was the stuffed bunny, frog, and duck having a tea party on an old suitcase. This was funny! I continued looking and found a broken iron, toaster, VCR, water heater, a chair with an old boot, a poster with a goat on it, and many other gems of other peoples lives which had been cast aside.

I first thought it was my friend who helped me move. When I thought further, these friends wouldn't have done it. They were already out moving me the night before into the early morning hours and were just as tired of moving stuff as I was. At first it was funny, but then that changed. I was going to have to move all of the junk off my porch. I had already moved so much! The thought of moving anything extra was painful and mean!!!! This was mean. I called another friend to help me get rid of it. As she arrived we found a matching chair on the street outside my house. So I have a new theory. There were two guys moving out of my building Sunday. I helped one of them, sort of, holding the door or whatever. My new guess is that it was them. But that also doesn't make sense. I have a really hard time picturing anyone who'd been moving all day setting up a tea party with stuffed animals for people they don't know. At the same time, maybe they are far more clever and were able to have a lame final hoorah on their labor day weekend.

So I don't know what to think. But I'm back to thinking that it was kind of funny. I can appreciate harmless pranks, although quite annoying. I'm glad I have this picture to remember it. I hope it's not some kind of freak stalker new neighbor.