I'm going with blinds for now. I'm not really a curtain person. But thanks!

It's sort of weird, as Sara's house takes shape, ours is ...disappearing. The walls look scary bare, with all the framed art and the hanging shelves down and packed for the truck. The framed photos we're taking are off the shelves we're not taking. Tomorrow is wrapping and packing vases, figurines, bookshelf lamps, candlesticks and candleholders that are making the trip and moving items that are not from the breakfront that's going to the shelves that are staying.

I should be grateful (and I am!) that we don't have to clear the space. DS will be living here, and he's said to leave what we don't want, or aren't sure there's room for in the new place.

In the scheme of things, we're not taking a lot--practically no furniture except for the breakfront and a few side tables. Books, and camping stuff, and books, and framed and unframed art, and books, and sculpture and art glass and pottery, and dvds, and books.... And I kind of like that empty space that's waiting for us. I'm not sure I want to fill it up, and if so, with which of the stuff we're taking?

It will be too much, I know. And we'll have left something behind we'll really miss and want. Inevitable.

Bev, you and I are moving to opposites in a sense. Me to old, you to less old. I was doing what you are a mere couple of months ago. It is disconcerting, taking things apart and exposing space.

One and a half weeks and I'm moving! Eep.

Why does this and the years biggest fundraiser have to be on the same day?

Worked twelve hours today getting ready for said fundraiser and I feel GOOD, which is nice after feeling so drained and yucky for almost a solid week.

And then I threw up again. Hopefully it's just a bit of delayed heat exhaustion (that's my silver lining).

Beverly, when I had fled Long Island to my parents two years ago, I had to prune five years of carefully accumulated things and furniture and carefully crafted "me"ness and it hurt so so much. I keep trying to have a minimalist style of living, but damnit, I like living in a homey home, not college dorms or military barracks!

After that first prune and having to reacquire furniture, the expense of storage is looking pretty tasty.

But you also get to create a new space, Bev. And yet I know what you mean. It's hard to pack up a space without a sense of longing or loss, at least for me anyway.

Why does this and the years biggest fundraiser have to be on the same day?

I bought a house when my professional and extracurricular life were hitting peak stress. I lost 10 lbs in the week before closing, and now that work is going insane, it seems to be starting to drop again. I get it.

Interesting to learn that stress=weightloss for me.

Interesting to learn that stress=weightloss for me.

I envy you. I think I'm the only person who gains weight with a virus. And food is my comfort zone. Depression and stress equals copious amounts of bread and pasta.

I suspect depression lead to the gain. Minute I was challenged again and felt like I was doing something, started shrinking. Eating changed a little, but it can't account for 40 lbs now. And certainly not those 10 lbs in a week.

Of course, I'm the freak who smokes less under stress. So.

I'm the only person who gains weight with a virus.

Possibly not. Stress gastric uck, and I'm holding steady. My weight is a medical conundrum, it's self-supporting. If I went on a year-long water fast tomorrow, I'd weigh the same in a year, I'm convinced. Of course, I dropped 20+ pounds during both pregnancies, so that's an indicator of weird, right there. Ah well. Lettuce and green beans and chicken, ahoy.

I feel like I should be sad at all the life-dismantling, but I'm really not. What's more troubling is porting it all into the new space. Which...I might just like to leave pretty empty.

Not that that will ever happen, because like Pigpen's dirt cloud, I attract things. They follow me home, they take up residence--without permission!

stress = weight loss for me as well. Of course, that's been counteracted by age = weight gain. Oh well.