and then there was November

For Thanksgiving, I was able to get the dreaded Black Friday off from work. Of course, this is no longer a concern for Meg, who as a teacher, had the day off anyway. Meg, Danny and Liam were driving to Buffalo along with Meg's cousin Hope, and I was able to hitch a ride to Albany.

The entire week before Thanksgiving I announced my plan to everyone: sit on my sister's couch for two days and have my family bring me cocktails and food. I was not going to lift a finger. This did not happen, but honestly I wouldn't have it any other way.

I love to cook, but ther than a pot of lentils or stew I haven't cooked much since moving to Brooklyn. My diet consists of cheese sticks and frozen things, or stuff Liam buys me when he goes to the corner store.

When I got to Albany my sister, my mother, and I discussed the menu. The groceries were all taken care of; Steph made the list and Mom took my cousin with her to the store. All we had to do was create the ultimate vegetarian-gluten-free Thanksgiving dinner. We've done vegetarian for many years now, with the occasional turkey thrown in, but this year we weren't even going to have stuffing or crescent rolls. It was up to Steph and I to make this dinner happen, and we were up for the challenge.

As I sat at my sister's kitchen table sorting the cranberries, I realized I never ate a raw cranberry before. I asked Steph if she ever did, and she scrunched up her face and said, "No." I thought I should eat one. Suddenly this uneaten cranberry symbolized all the untapped potential in my entire life. All the things I haven't done because I either assumed I already knew the outcome, or was simply too lazy to try.

The cranberry became a topic of conversation between my sister and I for several minutes. What would it be like? Images of thousands of cranberries floating in water danced in my head, followed by gallons upon gallons of cranberry juice. I knew how much sugar I add to the cranberry sauce each year, and I've had unsweetened cranberry juice before, so I declared to my sister that I thought I knew what to expect. The cranberry would be crunchy, it would burst between my teeth sending such bitter juice into my mouth that my face would involuntarily spasm. Then I showed Steph what my face would look like, smashing my eyes shut, and sucking in my cheeks until she started laughing.

So great was my imagination that I got myself a glass of water before commencing the experiment. My sister asked, "Are you ready?" With a drum roll I began, and was... surprised. The cranberry was dry, very dry. In fact, I would say there was no juice at all. It was bitter, but not at all with the intensity I was expecting. Steph read the disappointment in my reaction and suggested I try another one. Perhaps I got a bad one? Alas, the second berry was just as dry and unexciting as the first.

Didn't stop me from making some kick-ass cranberry sauce though. Along with: herb & garlic marinated tofu, mashed potatoes, miso-mushroom gravy, "dirty" sweet potatoes, corn, and our newest creation, wild-rice dressing. I plan on perfecting the dressing, and freeing our dessert course from gluten as well. No more belly aches for this family.

Can't wait for Christmas.

photo by Muffet / liz west

that was october

Halloween came and went here in Brooklyn. Meg was awesome enough to buy us pumpkins even though she doesn't really like scooping the goop. I love carving pumpkins, and that was my favorite moment during the month of October.
Thanks Meg :).

Liam was a creepy clown, and scared the crap out of me. I wore my vampire teeth to work, and discovered pumpkin spice lattes have the power to stain them.

The rest of the month is kind of a blur. I work. I sleep. I try to do dishes. I try to remember to take out the trash. I work. I run out of underwear and force myself to hit the laundry mat twice in one week so that I can procrastinate for another couple weeks.

So you see, somethings never change.

I fell in love with the express bus.

That's right. I indulge myself. Life's little pleasures? Lattes from Starbucks and sleeping on the express bus. I'm really good at it. First I spend sometime on my phone looking at facebook, then I slip into slumber, waking up just a few blocks from my stop an hour later. But I do not like the 5:30am bus.

Most of the time, I compare riding the express bus with flying business class, but it is actually closer to riding business class on the train because there aren't TVs or jacks for your laptop. There are however, neat rows of high-backed seats, with lots of room to spread out. The temperature is comfortable, and everyone is quiet - they are either sleeping like me, or reading.

The 5:30 bus is nothing like this. First of all, it comes at 5:25am, NOT 5:30am. Second of all, it reminds me of the Knight Bus from Harry Potter.

It rolls up in the dark, old and rickety. The heat does not work. The seats are uncomfortable, and it is filled with the weirdest cast of characters.

There is the tall skinny man, dressed in black from head to toe. Including dark sunglasses, and a black felt weekender hat. He does not talk. Across the isle from him is an old woman in a dirty brown 3/4 length winter coat. She does talk. She talks to the bus driver, to the fat smelly guy in the very front seat. She greets a few of the other men who get on the bus. She wants to talk about the Yankees, but she knows less about baseball than I do. Then there are the two middle-aged black women with the crazy hair. I don't mean crazy styles, I mean crazy, as in NO style, as in sticking up in the back and if I am unlucky enough to have them sit down in front of me I can smell them. At the back of the bus you will find the Coffee Slurper, the Snorer, and the Sniffler. I don't know what they look like because I have never turned around. I admit, I am afraid to.

Needless to say, I sit shivering and grinding my teeth all the way to work.

some things never change

If you are ever sitting around pondering how to change your life, make sure you consider carefully. Remember that no matter what your job, where you live, or who your friends are you will still be the same person on the inside. I don't think Meg and I had any delusions on that front. Whenever anyone commented on our exciting move to NYC, we would reply jovially that we'd still have to go to work, do laundry, get groceries etc, etc. We did however, make a few grandiose plans, if you can call blogging regularly grandiose.

So here we are living in Brooklyn, and the procrastinators inside us are here too. I need a day to shuffle around the house; frankly I'm ok with that. It's been pretty stressful, not adjusting to life in the big city, that part is awesome, but dealing with my new job has proved to be quite a challenge. My excruciatingly long hours combined with the ever growing "to-do" list - not to mention erratic eating and sleeping - have resulted in mood swings and zits.

Liam is busy opening and closing cabinets in search of food, Meg is napping on the couch, and I'm messing around on the computer. We should be going to the grocery store, doing laundry, cleaning, paying bills, instead I spent an hour playing cake-drop on facebook. It's all good, we'll go later. Plus, I had to blog!

We've been making time for fun of course. A couple weeks ago we went to Harbor Days at the Brooklyn Bridge and met up with Kristen. We rode a ferry, and had ice cream - yes, even I ate ice cream, but I don't know that I'll be doing it again soon. We went to Astoria last night to Hope & Robin's for a family dinnah party where I overindulged. Couldn't help myself, veggie chili and beer! Every once and a while I have a moment of ... well, it's hard to describe. Happened walking under the Brooklyn Bridge, happened again last night as Meg drove us home from Queens. Liam and I were looking through the night at the skyline pointing out the buildings, and then I saw the Statue of Liberty.

I live in NYC. How crazy is that?

Wonder when those moments will stop happening. Not for a while I hope.

Michael vs. Prince

Wow. We really haven't posted anything in a while. I've been working a whole heck of a lot. Meg and Liam have been slowly putting the house together, and making sure there are cheese sticks and beer in the fridge for me when I get home. It's felt more like home now that Liam is here. Our house is full of snacks and juice boxes. I've been able to stay away from all the sugary drinks so far, but I can't resist crackers... nor was I able to turn down some Captain Crunch-berries when offered : /. I crack up regularly watching Liam and Moochie play with one another. Liam also has a tendancy to dance and sing when he thinks no one is watching.

We finally got a chance to go out to a club last night. Thank goodness for Meg's closet - she dressed me - I think I looked kinda cute in her clothes. I got to play with Meg's hair, spending an hour straightening it while we watched Spiderwick. With her dress & heels she was damn hot. Unfortunately, Renee, Stephane, Meg, and myself had to wait for Danny to get out of work and make his way to Brooklyn. We sat around in our club clothes, drinking warm beer and playing with Moochie til Danny rolled up. Then we all ran outside to find a pretty hilarious site: Danny changing his clothes in the back of his car. We went to Crash Mansion in Manhattan. It was soul slam night: Michael Jackson vs. Prince, so we all had a lot of fun singing along & making fools of ourselves. Well, mainly Danny & I were the fools, me 'cause I dance like a white girl, and Danny 'cause he is a big clown.

Even with the NYC prices, we all got pretty lit. When we left the club, Renee and I set off with purposeful strides as though we knew where the car was...which we didn't, but oddly we had no trouble finding it! I know I went a bit over my limit, as I found myself kinda teary-eyed, or as Danny put it "pink," due to something that has nothing to do with the fun of the evening (someone hurt my feelings earlier in the day, not worth mentioning). I shook it off in time for the drive-through at McDonald's. Stephane, Meg and I were all excited for chicken nuggets - well, Steph was kinda passed out, but he woke up enough to mumble "nuggets" - none of us realizing it was so early in the morning, McD's was only doing breakfast.

When we stumbled through the front door to find Liam and Brandon passed out face-down on the couches...we left them there slumbering. They woke up earlier than the rest of us, of course, played some basketball, and are currently playing x box.

Ah, to be young and carefree.

Lucky for Me

It's been a little over three weeks since we moved here, and Wednesday of last week marked my first visit to Buffalo since. I was going back to my mother's house to pick up my car, that ($500 later) finally passed inspection. Lovely. A car. This will make things so much easier...

While I was in Buffalo I went out with my father and had the most amazing meal at Pearl Street Grill (www.pearlstreetgrill.com) and spent Thursday kicking around my mother's house, trying to get all of The Punk's things in order. I ended up leaving Buffalo on Friday with two hours of sleep under my belt, and very bad directions back to Brooklyn. Recipe for disaster.

Everything went swimmingly until I hit the Poconos, where I got turned around on the 80, and then sat, stock-still, for two hours on a sharp incline while waiting for some sort of traffic jam to subside. With squeaky brakes. Taking into account my constant need to stop and buy more coffee, pee, and check my tires, I made it back to Brooklyn in about eleven hours. The ride should have taken about seven and a half.

In true Meghan form, I got lost immediately upon getting into the city. I got on the BQE headed in the wrong direction, took Prospect Expy thinking "Well, at least that's headed toward Brooklyn..." and got off at the first street I recognized. In Coney Island. Which is not where I live. Awesome.

I Snore On the Bus

Did you know that today is Wednesday? I didn't. Meg and I said goodbye to one another at 5am this morning, and I spent most of the day dazed. It all started on Sunday (btw the last blog was written on the 9th when I was supposed to be taking a nap. I couldn't figure out how to fix the date :). I worked overnight from 8pm til 8:30am. A bunch of folks from the Columbus Circle store came to help me and a few people from my store move things around and try to make the place look pretty.

In my infinite wisdom, I decided to stay awake all day Monday and go to bed early since I had to wake up Tuesday at 5am. We went shopping at the Atlantic Center Mall. First, we explored Payless and DSW with only one sweet pair of shoes for me. Then we went to Daffy's. I have never heard of Daffy's yet we were told if I wanted to buy some underwear that was the place to be. It was grueling. I hate shopping. I tried on 8 different bras, and was ready to give up when I looked at the little old woman with the Polish (?) accent who was manning the fitting room. Surely such a wise being, having a large bosom herself, could offer me some advice. And she did, and I now know what size to look for.

Wouldn't you like to know?

Then we went to Target, which is normally quite rewarding, but the Target at Atlantic had no clothes!! In actuality, they do have women's sports and casual wear. Unfortunately, both Meg and myself wanted clothes for work. We ended up leaving the mall with a lot of sexy underwear and shoes...oh, and I think Meg bought a cute dress too, but by that point I was delirious.

I believe the rest of the day went like this: we went home, we decided to go to the movies, we got more coffee, we went to trader joes, saw Julie & Julia, cried, hung out with Renee, and then I passed out. The week since then like this: wake up at 5am, go to work, leave at 8pm, struggle for sleep, get up at 5am...and here I am.

Tonight, I ran screaming from work exactly at 8pm, and directly into the welcoming doors of the express bus. Literally without a second to spare. I promptly fell asleep.

An hour later I woke up. Head tilted back, mouth open, throat dry, and though I can't be certain, I'm pretty sure I was snoring, or at least breathing loudly.

I'm still awake four hours later, still in the clothes I had on at 5am. Maybe I need to go catch the bus.

Next Time We Hire Movers

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. I don't even know how to describe the state I am in today. Meg has gone to the botanical gardens. I should be sleeping because I have to work an overnight tonight, but I am so stressed I almost started to unpack more and clean... instead I thought if I wrote something, I would at least be sitting down.




Things I have seen so far in NYC:

1. An alien walking down Park Ave. At first glance you might mistake her for a female human in her sixties; upon closer inspection however, the shiny leopard suit stretched across her wiry figure, the bright orange hair carefully sculpted into a hard swirl, the gold sunglasses which cover her entire face, and her spastic walk make it hard to deny she is not of this earth.
2. A rat crawling on the subway tracks. Ok, I realize this is no big deal. I saw them all the time when I was a tourist, but I saw my first one as a New Yorker! Oddly, I haven't seen one since.
3. A subway train full of drunk Yankees fans. And yes, I got to ride with them.

We've been able to explore our neighborhood a bit. There are a couple of fantastic Italian bakeries nearby, and a pretty nice Japanese restaurant where we are quickly becoming regulars. We did laundry around the corner, and bought one of those handy carts for such occasions, as well as for shopping, though it sits unassembled in our living room.

Yes, living room! We have done some unpacking. There is still a bit to do, but at least you have a place to sit when you come in, and it feels like home. My favorite place to sit is on our front porch, with a beer in hand of course.

Here We Are

Holy crap, I have no idea where to begin...

We successfully made it to Brooklyn. The drive here was rigorous, and since we came things have been... crazy, to say the least. Let me give you the rundown.

Moving

Thanks to a little help from our friends (Steve, Spark, Sarah, Cynder, Josh, Lori, Matte) and family (Joey, Molly) we got all of our stuff into one U-haul truck. It wasn't easy or pleasant, but we did it. Then we drove... We made a pit stop in Albany to drop off some furniture with Stacy's mom, and then we hauled ass to Brooklyn. Unfortunately, due to extreme traffic (thank you Joey for maneuvering the U-haul across the Geo Washington Bridge) and poor planning we made it to our new house at about two a.m., and Danny, Rene and Brandon helped the three of us unload. Now everything is inside the house, but still in boxes because I am lazy, and Stacy has been at work.

Being Here

The first two days that I was here I suffered from the most extreme homesickness and panic I have ever felt. I would have moved back to Buffalo in a heartbeat if I could have, but I had just forked over a load of money and signed a lease so it wasn't an option. After two days in bed I reemerged to find that our new neighborhood is incredibly cute. The house is great. I love having Rene downstairs because he does amazing things like bring me breakfast. Everything is much better. Now, if I can only find a job...

Jobs

Stacy stuck with our former company and started her new job on Wednesday. She'll fill you in about that later I assume. I am still attending job fairs and interviewing and hoping that I find a way to make money.

That's about it.

There were some pretty funny stories in the interim, but we'll have to revisit those later.

THE END OF AN ERA

Meghan: Whoa, for a second I thought Stacy wrote "ear." Era. Good. Carry on.

Stacy: Like, "Errrrrrahh" I have no idea what that means...

Anyway, this is it. Our last day working together. Or at least, working together for someone else. We will be working together (watch out world) on our own business venture soon, but today for the last time together we have on our name tags and our happy faces, and will be serving the public until midnight. That sounds kinda dirty doesn't it?

I am about 5 shots of espresso into the day so far, and my left eye keeps twitching. Should I be concerned? NAH, just need more caffeine!!

Stacy Wants Ninja Cats

It's official. We've gone crazy.

Our future downstairs neighbor called me today to complain about packing. I thought it was funny, because I wasn't packing when he called, but I was thinking about packing. Really, if you add up all the time I have spent thinking about packing and converted it into time spent... uh... packing, three houses would be boxed up and ready to move. However, theory does not imply action regardless of what Zizek says.

Some interesting things have been happening to Stacy and I in this weird home stretch. Stacy has developed Tourette's Syndrome and keeps wandering around twitching and swearing under her breath, and insisting that she wants ninja cats because there was a movie on a Canadian channel that featured highly-trained combat kitties. I have totally stopped doing anything other than wondering if anyone loves me. Oh, and singing songs like "Disco Inferno" at inappropriate times.

When my stepmother packed up her and my fathers house she bought color-coded tape and ironed things that were going into boxes. I am barely able to assemble boxes, let alone accurate pack or label them. How did she do it? Well, it's three a.m., and I think it's time to get packin'

Note: The word packing was used in excess due to laziness and lack of motivation. It in no way reflects the authors opinions on repetition as a literary device, assuming she is still sane enough to have opinions.

What To Do, What To Do

This is not what I am supposed to be doing right now. Meg & I are each at our own apartments in Buffalo finishing up the last of the packing, which mostly consists of clothes and blankets & lamps. I can't focus, nor am I sleepy. I am contemplating whether or not I really need all of these pairs of Payless shoes.

I am cranky and uncomfortable, two things which I attribute to eating pizza everyday since Tuesday, and could also be accounted for by PMS. In a misguided attempt to make myself feel better I ate some dark chocolate - yet I feel this is ok because I am drinking green tea. Hmmm, both of these things have caffeine, oh well.

Somehow, in two days, I will be in Brooklyn. My only hope is that my brother will still love me after he gets us there. Two premenstrual insomniacs, two cats, and a whole truck load of stuff.

Pray for him.

The Packing Continues

Today was a good day. Don't get me wrong, it didn't go as planned - not that Meghan and I ever really have much of a plan, but today we were supposed to be up and out the door to get coffee by 10am. I think we left my apartment a little after noon.

Mornings typically go like this: the alarm clock goes off, I hit snooze; the phone alarm goes off, I hit dismiss; the clock goes off again, I hit snooze, and Meghan rolls over. The alarm clock is NOT next to the bed. The alarm clock is all the way across the room on top of my dresser. I get out of the bed, walk to the clock, fumble with the buttons, and dive back into bed. My neighbors must hate me.

This morning was much of the same, with Meg actually getting up to smash the alarm clock a few times. I am usually the one who ends the cycle, as I was today. The only reason I did was to check my bank account balance as I have done obsessively for the last two weeks. I don't know why I do this, I'm not sure if I am expecting the money to disappear or for thousands of dollars to suddenly show up there. Neither of these things has happened; I still have the same pitiful amount of cash. It is a good thing I am a wiz with lentils.

Yet we did get out of the apartment, grumble at one another until we reached Starbucks, and then magically, with iced caramel soy lattes in hand, everything was full of sparkles. Maybe I exaggerate, maybe the day of packing was still looming over our heads. We did get a lot accomplished. We probably only have about 3-4 hours of work left in each apartment, and pretty much it is just packing up the clothes.

The day ended splendidly. Our friend Steve came over to take part in the packing madness, and then we headed over to the Zicari's house. A few of the awesome folks from our neighborhood joined us, and we sat in the "cabana" drinking wine and beer, eating bugles, and wondering if it was ok that water was streaming down the christmas lights (it was raining, and there are a couple leaks in the cabana). I looked around at Shaun and Eric, Mark and Sarah, the Zicari clan, and felt blessed to know them. I admit, I am a little sad to leave B-lo behind, but I know that those folks, along with some of the many other fantastic people I have come to know will come visit.

I mean, doesn't everyone love NYC?

Creme de la Creme

I just spent three hours with some of the most fabulous people I have ever met.

Dan and Marcy graciously agreed to have an impromptu gathering of amazing people at their house this evening. Eric, Shaun, Sparky, Sarah, Squiddy, Alice and Patrick stopped by and hung out in the cabana, drank, and talked about life... Well, mainly we talked about work and finger puppets made to represent the plagues that led up to passover (in my three Red Stripes state I almost wrote Holocaust here, but that would be stupid and historically inaccurate)... It was wonderful. I had so much fun.

How can I leave these fantastic people behind? It caused a small crisis of faith to think that in one week I will only know a handful of people in the city I live in. Plus, they will probably not joke about making finger puppet sets of the martyred saints complete with miniature stones and missing eyeballs. Oh, Buffalo... I will miss you.

On the bright side, Steve, Stacy and I managed to get most of the stuff in my apartment into boxes and ready to be loaded on a truck! Go team, go!

Here I am!

Before anyone gets the idea that I am not a real person, I thought it was about time I made my appearance. In fact, Meghan is my hallucination, not the other way around.

Ok, not really. She is actually my friend - younger and more accomplished than I (though perhaps just as crazy) but she still lets me hang out with her, and now we are on our way to Brooklyn.

I leave this quaint attic apartment in Buffalo behind with mixed feelings. I've been through a lot here, a bit of darkness, yet in the end found my independence, and maybe a little courage. Packing up my belongings has understandably, unearthed a lot of memories and a lot of emotion, resulting in lost sleep. When I do slumber, it is restless, compounded by ceaseless grinding of my teeth - must remember to wear my mouth guard!!

If you've ever gone a few days without getting enough sleep, you know there are some interesting results. Sure, there are body-aches and a general sluggishness, but the most interesting effect is what a lack of sleep will do to your mind.

I do not even remember falling asleep last night. I vaguely remember I was packing in my office, watching an episode of Burn Notice on Hulu, and upon realizing it was 3:30am, grabbed my book and crawled into bed. I woke up with a start at 8:30, a bit disoriented, but aware enough to know I had to move my car or suffer the wrath of the timely traffic cops in my neighborhood. As I quickly got dressed, my gaze fell upon my hamper and I saw a piece of clothing which kind of made me lose touch with reality.

I stared at the unfamiliar pattern, and wondered where it came from. It was an odd shade of yellow, with orange and blue circles - was it a towel? A T-shirt? Was it MINE? In that instant, the entire world ceased to make sense. I felt as alien as the cloth I looked at.

If it was mine, why didn't I know what it was? It was on top of the hamper, I had obviously used it (or worn it) recently. It had to belong to me, which lead to a complete crack in my self-awareness. Who am I?

Then I stepped towards the hamper, leaned a little closer, scrunched up my eyes, and realized...

It was just the T-shirt I bought at the No Doubt concert.

I should also mention I normally wear glasses.

Stacy Refuses to Write

In the interest of truly freaking out about moving, Stacy actually picked up a pen and paper today, wrote a STORY, and still won't put up a blog. I think it's because she's a punk, but she keeps whining about how she's "just too busy." This could mean one of two things. The choices are (a) I'm right, and she's a huge wimp, or (b) she is doing much more packing than I am. I guess it could also be a combination of the two.

Anyway, Stacy's refusal to log onto our blog aside, let me tell you the story of THE WORST TUESDAY EVER. The caps are for effect, you see. The plan for today, as I understood it, was that I would fly to NYC and attend a "job fair." I put that in quotes for those of you who understand that this does not, in any way, even guarantee me an interview. Then I was supposed to have two interviews tomorrow. I went to work, I went to the airport in my suit, I went through security... I was doing okay right up until the point where I would actually be boarding said plane. Which, by the way, never actually arrived. Turns out that flights are occasionally cancelled due to "extreme weather (or "rain," as we laymen call it)". Lucky me. This is sweet. I love the prospect of unemployment, and perhaps eventual prostitution to pay my rent.

So I'm still in Buffalo, and have only managed to pack three or four boxes of my stuff, and we leave on Sunday. I can't wait to see how I pull this one off.

More Packing

Okay, it's Meghan again.

I just spent an ungodly amount of time not packing, but trying really hard to pack. I think I need a packing coach. I keep thinking "I'll pack this," and then going, "Oh well, I should pack that after I've done this."

Not an effective strategy.

Stacy is still at work, and after that, I think we are going to Dan & Marcy's to say goodbye, and drink some wine. I'm currently working on packing my "media." It isn't going that well. I thought I would be organized like Stacy and get my CDs and DVDs into a booklet, but I didn't buy a booklet. The ones I had weren't full, but now I have left-over DVDs and I'm not sure if I should just pack them in their cases or if I should buy a new CD case... like I have any money.

I would pay someone to do this for me. I now understand why movers make so much money. They totally deserve it. There is nothing more stressful than moving!

Chapter One, Packing

Stacy is trying to whittle her CD collection down to 256 units in order to eliminate the massive amount of jewel cases that would have to move with us. She is putting her collection into a "CD book" and Lori and I are (sort of) watching the Royal Tenebaums. Well, and writing this. We leave for Brooklyn in ONE WEEK. The apartment is secured, the U-Haul is rented, and the few friends we have that are willing to help us load our stuff onto it are ready to be at my apartment on Saturday morning. This is really happening and we are pretty much unprepared.

While this is an exciting move, all-in-all, it has been a stressful month. We were almost taken by surprise when we realized that we only had a month left to pack, and now we have a week, and I have packed two boxes. Two. Boxes.

I am nearly at the delirium point, and Stacy has to be up at 7:30 a.m. to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, because she said she would, and we are running out of time to have one last hurray with the people we love that are (unfortunately) staying in Buffalo.

We will, no doubt, keep you posted on the craziness of packing and trying to get ourselves ready TO MOVE as the week unfolds, but we are a little bit busy right at the moment, and kicking ourselves for our lack of foresight.