in motion

On my way home last night I went to Wal-Mart for boxes and found to my dismay that they've done away with Layaway and therefore dispose of their extra boxes instantly. SAAAAAAD. But as I wandered forlornly about I noticed some empty boxes lying about, and then began begging. And the employees were terribly nice. Make that Terribly Nice. I ended up walking out with two cartsful of broken down boxes to begin my Moving Out Flurry.

So. I Came, I Saw, I Begged Shamelessly. And these big sparkling hazel eyes and wide appealing smile go a long way to further my cause. Yes, folks, I have no shame. "Hi...um...I'm moving really, really soon and I just found out today...the place I really want just came up and I got it and I'm so excited...but anyway, I have a lot of packing to do in like no time...d'you think I could have some of those boxes? Would you mind? Really? Thank you so much. I need them so desperately and I didn't know what I was going to do..." (The one lady I talked to who was working freight even dumped all her boxes out and broke them down for me while we chatted about the travails of moving. She was fantastic. She told me to walk around the store and check with anyone else who was working freight and help myself to any boxes I saw. Then it was like magic, people were going out of their way to help me and give me pointers, and the folks at the door were amazed at how I was maneuvering two carts at once and we laughed together and the one woman complimented me on the pearls I was wearing and a gentleman offered to help me walk them out to my car -- sometimes it's like you step on an invisible button and everything is on. I think people respond to happiness. And yesterday I was really, really happy. And today I still am. I was even on time to work this morning.)

So last night while watching Ella Enchanted and part of Young Frankenstein (that's "Frahnkensteen") I packed nine boxes of books. Now before you get all impressed, that's only the books in my living room, which isn't even half. Sigh. But a good start nonetheless. And I am going to be Busier than Busy this weekend Running My Ass Off to get things packed.

You really accumulate a lot of stuff in two and a half years.

I'm getting plenty of help though with my move date, and I plan to have EVERYTHING packed by the time the Big Day rolls around, so that Moving Day is only Moving Day, and not Packing-and-Moving Day, except for some of the bigger stuff I can't manage alone like computer and TV and whatnot.

You know one of the things I'm most excited about? It's so trivial it's hilarious. There are plenty of things I'm excited about -- my own backyard, my own front porch, my own house with no other tenants, no one else's music or TV coming up through my walls, no one else's footsteps, no one else's voice, my own basement (places to store things when I do canning next summer!), my own garage, a commute to work that's so short it's giddily laughable, new home improvement projects (yes, yes, I admit, my apartment has been so perfect it's gotten boring), the potential for gardening -- so many things I'm excited about.

But you know what has me just purely delighted?

Michigan plates on my car.