The hour draws on

It’s been a while since I’ve posted last. There are lots of things going on in my life at the moment. It feels like I’m working three jobs at once: finishing my current job, getting up to speed on the new job, and planning another move.

Of these three, the one that’s causing me the most concern is planning the move. Part of this is because the last two moves have been so utterly chaotic: I didn’t have time to plan, so the basic strategy ended up being “throw everything into a box and ship it to the next town.” However, given the complexity and challenge of my next move–including downsizing from a house back down to an apartment–there is just no way I can let that happen again.

So, I’ve spent the last few weeks systematically going through everything I own to ensure that I am dispensing with anything that I don’t really need. This has been a relatively tough process, as I have had to force myself to throw away a number of things that, under other circumstances, I would have probably kept. But, as I mentioned above, I can’t really afford to be overly sentimental or nostalgic, so the trash pile grew larger than it normally would. It’s also guided the process of cleaning out my office. It’s been quite successful, and has actually reduced the number of boxes I’m taking from work. I would have thought I needed a dozen boxes to clean out the office–after all, it took about eighteen boxes to move out of my office at work when I left MIT–but this time, I’ve managed to get it down to about six or seven.

Now the last major task is to clear all the unwanted junk out of my house, a task I hope to have completed by tomorrow afternoon!

What's for dinner?

My take on couscous: sautéed carrots and celery, steamed green beans (fresh or frozen), topped with tomatoes, grilled chicken, black pepper, and grated cheese. Fast and tasty: a hard-to-beat combo.