hey, you know what?

originally uploaded by pr9000.

We're leaving Minnesota tomorrow morning.

It's just now hitting me -- especially after reading Big Daddy Avelis -- that Amina and I will be packing up our cars later today to make the two-day drive to Nashville.

We're leaving Minnesota.

It's been about a month since I've written here, and I certainly will do more once I get to NashVegas (as one of Amina's former coworkers dubbed the place), but it's been a month between posts mainly because we're moving, which is busier than you can imagine.

Well, if you've moved, you don't have to imagine. You know the drill ...

About a month out, you think you've got time, so you work, but not too hard because, hey, you've got! four! weeks! until you move. You might do some throwing away of junk, some organizing, shuffling a few boxes around ... you've got time.

Then it's three weeks out, and you start to hear the moving truck way off in the distance. You reshuffle some boxes and lightly pack your DVDs. This, my friends, is progress.

When it's two weeks out, you start to get "serious" about this moving thing, and tackle the rooms that have the least amount of hard work to them -- the guest room, the other bath, that one cabinet in the garage. This is much better progress than the progress you made last weekend, so go ahead -- take Sunday off. You've earned it.

When it's one week out, your sphincter tightens because the movers are coming and you're just not ready. How did this happen? You worked so hard and there's still too much to do? What do you mean, "You could have donated more, done more yardwork, gotten the sprinklers fixed and sorted the two racks of shoes in the garage?" Who knew the movers would actually come ... to pack ... my stuff? I mean, we signed contracts, we circled dates on the calendar, but seriously -- who could have predicted that the moving company would do what it said it would do, on the scheduled you set for them to do it?

Finally, the loading day arrives and the 37-man crew sent to load your stuff cranks it out in about three hours ... which leaves you the false security that you're a day ahead of schedule. You don't exactly start slacking off, but you do work less frantically. You can get the house cleaned in a few hours, and the new owners will be gracious and thrilled that the house is cleaner than it ever was when you lived there.

Three arguments, two more boxes of stuff you forgot to pack and one back-breaking marathon cleaning session later ... the house is ready to be handed over. You remember thinking that you couldn't possibly get everything done in time, and yet there you are, and it's all pretty much done.

That's how it works. As I said to Big Daddy ... if it's the journey, and not the destination, that counts, be prepared that the journey won't be smooth. But you'll get where you're going nonetheless.