As you might have read by now, my roommate and I are moving later this month (April 21 to be precise).  There's so much work involved in moving, though, and I always end up feeling like I'm going to forget something.  It also turns into this chaotic episode of packing and making phone calls and packing and throwing things away and packing and more packing.  I just started packing this weekend, and I've already generated three garbage bags worth of junk.  No, we don't live in a house so cluttered with junk that you have to travel around via paths cut through the debris.  Quite to the contrary, actually, the house generally stays quite clear except for the kids' toys.  Still, as you dig through closets and drawers to pack things, you come across stuff that you can't possibly want or need — yet there it is.

For instance, I ran across my first two cell phones in their original boxes with the original documentation and accessories.  WTF is that about?  Did I really think the Nokia 6160 was ever going to come back into style?

While cleaning out the lowboy, I found the original documentation for an electric shaver I purchased two years ago and threw away shortly thereafter.

Have you ever wondered why you keep things like that, when at the time you're convinced it might actually be needed at some point in the future?

When I tackled one of the closets in my room, I found two Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs — both from more than two years ago.  Again, what was I thinking?  I must admit that I found them in a stack of tax-related papers and documentation, so I know they got put in that box by accident.

Still, the moral of the story is that I consider things necessary for no logical reason, yet I always find myself unable to comprehend the initial reasoning when I come across these lost treasures later.

Needless to say, this whole packing/cleaning thing is going to take me the next two weeks.

Still, I think we'll both be happy to get out of this place and into someplace new.  We've grown quite frustrated (dare I say repulsed) with the local inhabitants.  Trash doesn't go far enough in explaining the riffraff that has enveloped our once quiet little neighborhood.

It's not that we haven't had this problem before (children playing in the streets all hours of the day and night, playing in our yard and driveway like it belonged to them, people parking in our driveway like they owned the place [no, don't worry about me, I'll just stay home and starve so you don't have to get your nasty car out of my driveway!], and the list goes on).

Believe me, we don't live in the ghetto.  In fact, it's an affluent area of the DFW metroplex.  Still, it draws a lot of "new money" who have just enough money to live here but not enough money to furnish their homes.

So, again, we'll be happy to be out of here.

Our new pad is quite cool.  It's spitting distance from a lake (now hints on which one, since I don't want you freaks stalking me!), faces the woods and a creek (that runs into the lake), and is quite a distance back from the nearest major thoroughfare.

And the kids will love it, as the creek is already bustling with all sorts of wildlife, including a menagerie of birds and other wild creatures.  The kids love to talk to birds right now, so I'm quite interested in how they react to having a dramatically larger selection — and much closer than what they see right now — to choose from.

So I reiterate what I've said multiple times before.  As we get closer to moving, I can't promise that I'll keep the site updated daily, but I'll do my best.