we'll help you party down

Today was one of those days that you shouldn't worry your pretty little head about - there was nothing to see here, and you should just go about your internet browsing without reading this post. It's 99% official that I'm moving to the evil city; all that remains is signing the lease. Oh, and moving, which is a daunting prospect given my extreme amounts of stuff. However, because I just happen to move every year through circumstances mostly outside of my control (okay, this circumstance is entirely within my control, so I'm not complaining), I have my moves down to a precision that almost approaches Seal Team Six levels of timing and coordination. Hopefully I will not crash my chopper into the wall of my new condo, but regardless, I think I'll likely be saying 'mission accomplished' within the next two weeks.

So I spent most of today anticipating the move and starting to mobilize. That meant tackling my garage, which was not high on my list of things I wanted to do, and so I indulged in some procrastinatory efforts (including three loads of laundry and remaking my bed). The problem with the garage is that it has a single bare lightbulb, was full of cobwebs before I ever moved in (and has only added more swathes of cobwebs in the last year), and is also full of cardboard boxes that I need to slice up, flatten and recycle. Of course, it's also full of cardboard boxes that I intend to use for my move, which is great since I doubt I'll have to buy any boxes - but when I had furniture delivered from Crate and Barrel last fall, I just dumped all the packing materials in the garage rather than flattening the stuff then. If you've ever ordered anything from Crate and Barrel, you know that they pack things in twice as much cardboard and styrofoam as anyone else, so the packing materials for my kitchen table, four chairs, and queen-sized bed are rather frightful.

But, I made good progress with my box-cutter, so I'm pleased with that. I also met my goal of filling up my garbage bin and my recycling bin for tomorrow's pickup, since I don't want to waste any opportunities to dispose of stuff in the next few weeks. I'm letting go of things more than I have on previous moves - I recycled a whole crate full of old romance writing magazines, nearly all of my DVD cases, a blender w/a rusted blade, a bunch of cardboard, etc. I also cleaned out my fridge and freezer and dumped some of the stuff in my pantry, so all in all it was quite a productive afternoon.

I had to stop just before five p.m. to see Bart about my progress with the high protein diet; overall it was decent, except for when I went out, which was about half of my meals last week. Oops. So this week I'm supposed to be more strict, which I will endeavor to do. That meant that I went to Whole Foods straight after seeing him and bought hamburger and sweet corn, and I had a cheeseburger and corn for dinner. Yum. And then I thought I would write, but my energy died just as I sat down to the laptop (funny how that happens), so I caught up on industry gossip instead.

And now, it's only ten p.m., but I think I'll crawl into my freshly laundered sheets and read for a bit before going to bed. Alyssa awaits in the morning, and then I need to carve out some time to write before I do some more move-prep - Ellie and Nick can't wait for me to move, go to NYC, and go to Germany before I start writing again, or else they'll be old and grey before I ever get to chapter four. Goodnight!