(And a great big virtual gift if you can identify that subject line . . . )

We pick up the truck tomorrow.

Nothing is packed.

The big issue at the moment, for me, is space. I think I'm the only one who realizes how very much smaller the new house is than the old one . . . In terms of sleeping arrangements, Emil and I are moving from a huge Cape Cod bedroom to a small, three-bedroom ranch bedroom. We're going from a 1 1/2 car garage to a single-car, converted-carport garage (that has doors on the back and front, oddly enough, which is cool but it also reduces the overhead storage space - home of my x-c skis - to nil). As I said yesterday, I'm afraid the dining room table will prove to be too big for the space. And we're trying to figure out what to do with our stereos; we have three complete seventies-style component sets. And as for books . . . oh, crap, if I start wondering what the hell we're going to do with all our books, I'll just melt into a puddle of despair and spend the rest of the day in the fetal position, sucking my thumb. We've recycled a ton of books (probably literally), but they seem to multiply like something out of a Mel Brooks movie . . .

I suppose I'll just have to reconcile myself to the idea that we're going to need to rent another truck or van sometime in the future when we manage to sell the Ann Arbor house. At the moment, we're picking and choosing what to take to Lansing, and trying to leave some furniture in this house because [a] houses that are furnished sell (and rent) better, and [b] as long as we have this house, we may as well use it; I have visions of spending the weekend here, both for entertainment and also because we'll need to do some maintenance, like tending the yard and raking the leaves (if it comes to that, which I hope it doesn't). Since we're not sure how much of our stuff will actually fit in the new house, it doesn't make much sense to me to move it all there, discover we have too much, and then try to get rid of it.

And for what it's worth, the packing issue is being "solved" by a bunch of Em's friends, who will be here at 1:30 to get started. I'm hoping that they can actually get stuff done; my fear is that because we aren't taking everything, I'll have to approve every little item they put in every box. (And do I trust teenagers to pack dishes??)

Everything feels indecisive, incomplete, ill-organized, and entirely too ad hoc to feel comfortable . . . but then, that's pretty much the way the whole summer has felt. I prefer swift, decisive action, but this situation has been ill-suited to that from the beginning. Perhaps it's true that "they also serve who only stand and wait" but I don't believe it (and I don't think Milton did either, if you want to know the truth).

Ah, well. Off to have lunch with a friend from the CoP, then off to buy boxes and supervise those teens . . .