• monday, july 10 – my last blog entry, wherein i sigh about not having the boxes i need to finish the job of packing and moving
• tuesday, july 11 – the boxes arrive! i pack for a while, freak out at the smallness of the dent that i make, and go to dinner with david for a late birthday/farewell celebration. we go to upland, and it’s good. if you have never had the salad with the coconut-breaded tofu, you’re missing out, and yeah, i know it sounds weird, but try it. unless you like neither tofu nor coconut. then get the nachos.
• wednesday, july 12 – more packing. the end is in sight, but daunting. i realize i will definitely not make my incredibly optimistic hope of beginning the trek to new hampshire on thursday afternoon, and begin to admit that i might not leave on friday either. i book a storage unit. in martinsville. because it’s half as expensive as any in bloomington. i go to the dance for the last time, and at yogi’s afterwards, anna offers to let me store my stuff in her spare room, which is awesome, and i don’t know what to say, but i go to bed very excited and inspired by the generosity in the world.
• thursday, july 13 – i get all the big stuff ready to go so that whoever i can get to help me take it to anna’s won’t have to deal with the rest of my crap being in the way. i work out a plan for getting david’s amazing, gargantuan van (without which my last three moves would have been much more annoying) from mo, who is also moving this week. i also talk to lucy, who offered to help me move, and she says no problem, call whenever, she’s just studying and would love the break. lucy receives my nomination for goddess of the month.

  right before the van is supposed to change hands, jeremy and mo hear a very loud noise, and discover that some unidentified part of the underbelly is now protruding through the bottom of the floor, which has been rusting for years. this is an OLD amazing, gargantuan van. mo doesn’t think it’s really anything to worry about. “it will probably just give out one day, but not TODAY, so you should be fine.” i decide to defer to david’s judgement, but he is at a board meeting until 9. i tell lucy the news (“no problem! just let me know!” — goddess of the month secured), and do a load of laundry while waiting for david. he gives it the thumbs up when he gets home, and so lucy and i go ahead and move my bed, futon, bookshelves, and a few other things to anna’s house. once there, i realize that it will definitely not be possible to fit all of my boxes in the spare room, which is a drag, but it is still nice to not have to worry about the big stuff, and i haven’t canceled the storage unit yet, so all is still well. i thank anna profusely, we help her move a washing machine, and i get home late.

• friday, july 14th – continue packing the stuff that i can carry myself, and load it into the van. begin cleaning the house. realize that i need a few more boxes. grumble. go to work for a few hours to take care of the final loose ends there and say goodbye to dan and bruce. get the extra boxes, continue packing, and realize that i will need two trips to the storage unit because of my bike and lamp and a few other awkwardly shaped things. grumble again.
• saturday, july 15th – finish all packing and do all but a final mop of the kitchen. take stuff to storage myself. glory in the ease of loading my stuff in the space because i don’t have the bed and bookshelves to deal with. go to the end of renee’s daughter’s sweet 16 party to say goodbye and eat the lovely hors d’ouevres. enlist david’s help in the last trip to the storage unit. decide to throw away the big metal table that i have been lugging around for years even though it is rather broken. enjoy that decision very much. get a slushy from dairy queen and wonder why in the hell anyone would decide to change a name like “mr. misty” to something as stupid as “arctic rush”.
• sunday, july 16 – try not to grumble at the fact that i haven’t left yet, instead focusing on how much i have done and on how clean the apartment looks. pack the car with stuff i am taking and/or leaving with my mom. wonder at how all the little things can take me until 2:30 in the afternoon. keep myself from thinking about it and just start driving, hoping to get far enough before i collapse from exhaustion that it won’t be a very long drive the next morning. call erik from ohio to let him know that i’m on the way, and that i am tempted to drive straight through to make up for lost time and save the motel expense, but, since all of my rational powers and past experiences point to this being a ridiculous and impossible idea, i will probably stop somewhere around 2 or 3 in the morning, and make the rest of the trip tomorrow. we agree that i’ll check in again around midnight, at which point i’m on the pennsylvania turnpike and still not feeling that tired. we look at maps and decide that it will still be between 6-8 hours until i get there, so i definitely shouldn’t be able to make it without stopping. i agree to call the next day when i get to brattleboro, vt, to give him warning that i will be there soon.

  now, this next part i still don’t really believe.

  bucking all odds and expectations, i drive straight through, sustained by david’s generous loan of the harry potter five book-on-tape, supplemented by a rousing round of showtunes sung aloud somewhere around 2 in the morning. once the sun started rising, i knew that i would not be able to justify stopping and paying for a motel, and i was never tired enough to feel satisfied by any of the side of the road pulloff options. instead, i listen to npr as the sun comes up over a misty new england landscape, and cross into massachusetts at about 7. at this point, i DO stop for about 45 minutes at a parking area, both to rest my eyes and keep from calling erik too early. the nap is perfect, and i call erik around 8:30 as i appraoch keene, new hampshire, which is about a half-hour from the goal.

• monday, july 17 – thursday july, 20 – sit next to the lake, swim, sail, canoe, cook, eat, drink, read, play mastermind, talk with erik about the world, meet a friend of his from highschool and her boyfriend, catch up on sleep, and get in touch with what i love about new england.
• >friday july, 21 – do what i can to help tidy the cabin, lose my keys for half an hour (only to find that they were in my purse all along), drive to harlem to meet up with liza, getting a bit lost around bronxville as i realize that i don’t know which bridge to take, and that the signage in that area is apparently designed to obfuscate and annoy.
• saturday, july 22 – feel a bit shellshocked to wake up in harlem after a week in new hampshire, but also enjoy hanging out with liza and returning to nyc after what i calculate as 6 years, which is riDiculous. we get a good breakfast and go to the international center of photography to see weegee and atget and a korean guy about whom we are undecided. we wander around midtown and attempt to meet up with liza’s sister for a movie, instead seeing clerks 2 on our own, and liking it far more than either of us expected. we go to a scottish pub that liza likes despite it’s trendy status, and bond over some scotch-tasting. i worry too much about the things in my car, so i bring them in the apartment, and then go to bed tired.
• sunday, july 23 – we go to city island, which i had never heard of but liza had been wanting to explore for a while. it strikes us as a place that has seen better days, but it’s still fun to sit and watch the gulls, and eat some shrimp, and then we find one of the best deals in the city – 2 for 1 daquiris at the lobster box (not to be confused with the shrimp box or the fish box), with bread service that includes hot cornbread. since the drinks are only $7 to begin with (before the 2 for 1), they are already a good deal by new york standards, so we have two each, and kill the dead of the afternoon in style for less $20, even including a nice tip for the friendly waiter.
• monday, july 24 – liza goes to work and i laze around the apartment, catching up on email and watching spirited away on the cartoon network. we go shopping and make dinner – quinoa and shrimp salad, my favorite 15-minute asparagus, and bruleed pluots. snazzy.
• tuesday, july 25 – liza calls in sick and we go to fire island, to follow up on the tip that the sunken forest leads to a relatively unpopulated beach. we drive because i have to move my car anyway for the street sweepers, and it’s kind of fun to see long island. after almost taking the wrong ferry, we find our way, and the beach is awesome. there are only a few other people on the beach, and we sit on the sand and play in the surf for a couple of hours. the water is cold, the undertow is strong, and i don’t have a swimsuit, so i just wade, but eventually we discover that there are approximately a bajillion little crabs swimming frantically in the riptide after each wave hits, and that is fun. i regret not having my new camera yet. we make our way back on the 4:00 ferry, have awesome onion rings and mediocre other food at a diner in islip, and make our way home to collapse on the couch, where liza comes up with the stories she will tell to account for her sunburn when she shows up at work tomorrow.
• wednesday, july 26 AKA today – i am going to wander around the city, potentially buying the camera and/or swiss army knife that i am still seeking, and then meet up with liza after work for margaritas and guacamole somewhere downtown. i meant to leave already, but i have become intimidated by the amount of time since i last posted, and so it seemed wise to purge the cache, even though i suspect that this highlight reel is rather boring. hopefully, now that it’s off my chest and i’m back in the land of the internets, i will have some more thoughtful tidbits to offer soon.

  i also realize that i need to update my masthead, but i need to do some software wrangling first, so sit tight.

  manhattan, here i come! :)

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