you're calling to me, i can't hear what you have said

Compared to my usual moves, I'm actually far ahead of schedule -- I actually have almost everything packed up in a real box or suitcase, with almost 36 hours left before my scheduled departure. Whether those boxes and suitcases will fit into my car is a question for tomorrow. And while I'm far ahead compared to my historical experience with moves, I'm by no means close to done -- I still have to haul everything upstairs and spend several hours arranging, rearranging, and load balancing, almost like I'm loading a pack horse, except in this case I'm trying for maximal load with minimal blocking of windows and doors.

You would think that as many times as I've moved cross-country (this is move number seven, counting three airplane/UPS combo moves during college and four cross-country car trips) and cross-ocean (six times, although the back and forth to Ukraine were much more stressful for my parents than they were for me), not to mention the disasters I experienced at the end of all four dorm experiences and most of my four post-college apartments, I would have reached a point of wisdom and understanding about the necessity of starting early. But no, I still procrastinate. And there are many things I carry with me because I'm in such a hurry that I don't feel like I have time to properly decide what to throw away -- there are a couple of boxes now sitting in my closet, which I intend to leave here, that I know have stayed packed the same way they were packed at the end of my senior year of college, and I've just moved them around for the past five years. It's that tendency to accumulate that is leading me to search for a bigger apartment than the one I previously had in Palo Alto; not that I want space for more stuff, but I at least want space for the stuff I have.

Anyway, today was still a decent day. I spent most of it packing, but did see my family, and we had yet another over-the-top midwestern supper -- Dad grilled both brats and hotdogs, and Mom made mac and cheese, sauerkraut for the brats (which I did not eat), chili for the hotdogs (which I did eat), and strawberry shortcake (which I ate after a two hour post-hotdog break). I love Mom's strawberry shortcake -- she makes individual biscuit-like shortcakes, and then you can top them with as many strawberries and as much half and half as you want. Yes, I said half and half -- it's the best topping for shortcake, far superior to canned whipped cream. Also, I had a nice, long chat with Katie, who has called me more since she's been able to just dial my childhood phone number; our topics of conversation were varied and highly entertaining, and I'm going to have to find a weekend to go down and visit her in Dallas.

Okay, it's bedtime! A week from now I'll be in San Francisco, after a cross-country drive and a weekend in Los Angeles, getting ready to don my manager pants and spend a couple of days 'working'. I don't know whether that deserves a 'yay' or a 'bleh', so I'll leave it to you to decide.