Moving and other things

[moderate_excess]

In the past month I have: helped design and buy furniture and display cases for a trade show in NYC, updated the company web site, unpacked and shelved the better part of 16 large boxes of leather-bound journals from Italy, worked at the pen shop as needed including running to the storage unit for inventory, completed blasting a 6' tall octopus on tempered glass to go in a bathroom door, designed and blasted two shower panels, the glass for which was not delivered until last Friday, oversaw and coordinated (long-distance) a complete remodel of the basement room at my parents' house in Madison, Wisconsin into which I will be moving, packed all the books and loaded them and as much stuff as I could manage into three ReloCubes to be shipped to Madison ahead of the move, packed the rest of my things, including the entire sandblasting studio, rented a 26' truck, loaded a 600 pound compressor onto it, and in general juggled cats until my arms were tired.

Today is moving day. Everything has to be finished being packed and get loaded onto the truck, including all the rest of the equipment from the studio. Laundry to be done, cats loaded into carriers, final shopping taken care of. There are people I didn't get to see before I go and things I never got to do. Everyone tells me I must come back, and I will, but I don't know when.

I've meant to post photos of the glass in progress, and the piles of boxes rising higher and higher, but time got away from me again and so you'll just have to imagine or wait for me to gt around to it once I get to Madison.

Thanks goodness I have had help, in the form of bibliofile, who has been invaluable in helping pack things while I've been sandblasting and keeping me company and giving me an excuse to eat at some of my favorite places one last time. And she will continue to be invaluable when it comes to driving the car and two of the cats up to Madison, while I pilot the huge-ass truck and its loudly complaining feline passenger. She's lucky; she gets the boy-cats, who are gentlemen in the car. Also thanks to Laura, the professional organizer I hired to help pack, event though she packed things I told her not to pack and put things in weird places. Control freak freaks out. But it's all good, and this too shall pass.

And now it's time to shut the computer down and pack it into a box and do the laundry and pack the remaining items and my suitcase, and, and, and...

If I didn't get to see you to say goodbye here in NOLA, please know I really wanted to but time got away from me. I hope to see you when I come back for a visit.

Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish beads.