I'm back

On a windy, rainy Friday evening, with the help of two friends who had not decamped for Ann Arbor, Seattle, or other points, I packed all my worldly possessions into a U-Haul truck and moved them into my new apartment in Manhattan.

Early the next morning (and I mean before-six early) I hopped in my truck and trundled back through the drizzle over the 59th Street bridge, to clear out of my apartment a horde of dust bunnies and some assorted, left-over refuse. I made one last visit to my local donut shop (large coffee, milk and sugar please ... and a Boston cream donut as well) for energy, and then swept and bagged and lugged for two hours before finally going up to the roof to watch planes descend below the clouds into the swirling wind and take one last look at the Manhattan skyline I'd soon be too close to appreciate.

Then I returned the truck, showered, and headed up to the royal palace of HMQ2K6 to watch Michigan beat Vanderbilt. Then I took a six-hour nap to inaugurate my week of holding down the fort for Her Majesty while she's off waterskiing and swatting mosquitoes in northern Michigan. (It's a long story why my possessions are living at my new place, but I myself am not.)

So I'm a Manhattanite again. And for this week, an Upper East Sider to boot. But more important: I no longer am spending most waking hours planning my move, and I have internet access.