Thursday, December 08, 2005

Seeing red

I've been on a kick to get rid of stuff so that I don't have to pack it. Currently an entire corner of my dining room is piled up with things I think I can live without. Novels I'm never going to read again. Obscure literary theory readers from college. A blender with a missing blade. The Kermit the Frog that my friends won for me at Jillians years ago. A new garden hose, never used. Two obsolete computers. Pants that no longer fit due to the fitness regimen. And so forth. I have no idea what I'm going to do with all this stuff, but it's pretty liberating to get rid of it.

Along the same lines, last week I decided to get rid of my massive CRT monitor and instead buy a new LCD flat panel. I figured it would be a lot easier to lug to Boston, and would also give me tons more desk space. The good news is that the new monitor arrived today. It's big and flat and beautiful. Except for the fact that within its first hour colors went all loopy and tiny red stripes appeared all over the screen. So looks like I'm going to be on the phone with Samsung and/or Amazon tomorrow trying to get this straightened out. Yuck.

My boss finally officially announced my departure last week. It was pretty anticlimactic, since just about everyone knew I was a short timer anyway. But it somehow made the whole thing more official.

I also rented a truck. I really had no idea how much truck I would need. I settled on 24 feet, which might be utterly huge. But I figured it was better to have too much space than too little. The plan is to move the third week in January. I've convinced two brothers to come help, and volunteers at both ends have also stepped forward. So hopefully the whole thing will be pretty painless.

Right now I'm seriously considering decorating the house for Christmas. I figure that if I cover everything with greens I can go ahead and pack lots of stuff without making the place look totally depressing. Plus if I get really organized maybe I'll get arount to having some sort of Christmas/going away party. That could be fun.