The move is halfway over...

On Thursday, we picked up the truck in Harrosonburg, Va -- about 1 1/2 hours away. When we got back, we packed the truck with the help of our friends, who frankly made ALL the difference. We just could not have done it without them. BIG thanks go out to Matt and Jen, Kirt, Chris, Matt L, Ryan and Leigh. There is no way we could have done what we did without them.

Even after about 4-5 hours, we only had it half packed. So we stopped for the night and on Friday we started cleaning all the little stuff up out of the house and making the final goodwill trips. On Fridayafternoon our friend Kirt came over and helped us load the last of it-- patio furniture and whatnot. We also stored the vespa in his garage for the summer.

In the truck, there wasnt a spare piece of space -it was like Tetris to get this stuff packed in the truck, and it was aHUGE truck -- 24 feet! We obviously have too much stuff.

We left at 8:30 p.m. on Friday night and finally made it "home" to Mike's parents house at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning.On Saturday, we got up at 8:00 a.m. and got about 6 people to help and we unloaded into storage yesterday. Thanks to Patrick, David, Kavel, Steve and my mom for their help. The storage unit is PACKED to the gills. Then we went back to drop stuff at the Dunn's and took naps and when we came back out, the truck had died! We had to get someone to come jump it and then returned it and then had a leisurely dinner and lots of wine and went to bed!

We're recovering, slowly, but its good to have part of it over. We're still at Mike's parents. We'll head over to the city later today to get set up at my mom's spare apartment. We're going to see Steve Malkmus tonight at TLA, and then going to the Philliesgame (business person special) tomorrow. The rest fo the week is packed with work and other obligations and then on Friday night we have a graduation party and a wedding and possibly a late night party... Saturday is Mike's college reunion, Sunday is Maggie's baptism and a visit to the de Aguiar's new home if we can manage it, and then we leave for our cross-country trip.

I feel exhausted just thinking about it all, but glad that the move is OVER. That was a beast.

We store our stuff until we move into the new house in Philadelphia on July 29th. Mike gets his studio in DC in mid-august and then the commute begins.