More boxes and bags have been tipped over, shuffled through, filled, emptied, and refilled. I'd say we're about one quarter of one per cent through the process, and we still have to figure out which week we can both manage to go apartment-hunting at the same time. (Either of us doing it alone isn't an option; while we trust each other's taste in living spaces, it'd be pointless for Rick to travel to Rochester alone given some of the other things I have to do there, and if I pick out a place without Rick being present, we won't know whether he's allergic to the surroundings until it's too late.)

Digging through the drawers and closets has been better than Christmas, though. I did start with some of the bathroom storage a few weeks ago, when it became clear that I was likely to be offered a job in another city. I found all kinds of cosmetics that I'd forgotten that I had. Even after throwing away the really stale stuff, I ended up with a near-lifetime supply of lipstick, eye shadow, and all sorts of face paint that I don't even wear every day. And the clothing is no different. I went out to lunch today wearing a very retro, baggy novelty sweatshirt that I think I bought around 1990. It looked good on me then, and still does. Thank Zarquon for the concept of "one size fits all".

We have not had to search for a rental since 1991, when we leased the house that we went ahead and bought the following spring. We've almost forgotten how to do this. It's all going to have to come back in a hurry, because today I even started packing up the quizbowl shrine in our family room. I gave away at least sixty or seventy pounds of print journals to my friends at WMU. We're going to have to start dropping off our recycled paper in order to have room to organize more recyclable paper. A friend who went through this last year, when she and her family relocated at the start of her graduate program, reminisced, "We filled dumpsters." The emphasis was hers. Note the plural.

All this and Christmas shopping too.

Kalamazoo to Rochester, in the big-arse middle of winter.

I can't wait.