I know, you’re either tired of hearing about Valentines, or you’re tired of hearing about people who hate Valentines. It’s the same every year. Ben and I don’t really celebrate Valentines because we don’t really care about it. I used to be vitriolic in my hatred for it, but I’ve calmed down a little bit, at least. People who like Valentines can go ahead and do what makes them happy. Their happiness doesn’t diminish my own in any way.
Unrelated: Does anybody else worry that the less stuff they hate the less interesting of a person they are?
Anyway, our move goes forward. I haven’t packed a single thing, but to date, I’ve taken two full carloads of shit to the Goodwill. I still have to schedule their truck to come and pick up the bigger furniture. The plan at this point is to have my dad fly down on the 25th to help us drive the moving truck back up.
I can’t believe that in less than three weeks we’re not going to live here anymore. When we first made the decision, I would have these little pre-homesickness attacks. Like the time I was eating lunch near a high school, and I saw all these Southern California children in shorts and flip flops in January and it occurred to me that my kids won’t be Californians. I mean, that’s assuming a lot about the course of my life for the next 10 to 30 years. And, even though one of the reasons we’re moving to Oregon in the first place is because neither of us want to raise kids in Los Angeles, it was one of those things I knew, but didn’t realize. There’s this whole SoCal childhood that I took for granted, and passively assumed I’d be repeating, making improvements to. It’s a strange and melancholy realization that I actually have no intention of doing that at all.
Whatever, it’s a small price to pay for clean air.
Since I was sick for a week, then spent this week playing work catch-up, and Ben is working on a pretty tight deadline, I’m worried about the packing. We need to give a ton more shit to Goodwill. The majority of the things in our apartment aren’t coming with us, so at least I’m lightening the load in terms of what’s coming and what’s going. It still makes me nervous. People have offered to help, and I need to be more aggressive about taking them up on the offer. I feel like I don’t really know where to start, so bringing in other people may be a waste of their time. But hey, at least we get to hang out, so it’s not a total loss. Anyway, if you’d like to help with packing, reach out and let me know because I am so distracted most of the time.