But I'll let Andy write about our gear later. I'm here to tell you about what we're not taking, which is everything else.
For several months now, Andy and I have slowly selling off our possessions on craigslist. You probably wouldn't know it from looking at our apartment, which appears pretty much as cluttered as ever, but we have made a decent dent in our vast collection of I-hardly-ever-use-this stuff. As we come nearer to our departure date, Freecycle has also been called into play, but really, we've been making out OK on craigslist...most weeks I don't even have to go to the ATM, I just sell a yoga mat. Or a Dutch oven. Or a Razr scooter. Etc. If buyers are in the city, I'll bring items in to work and have them meet me at my office; my coworkers probably wonder what the hell I'm doing when I suddenly spring up from my desk at 3 PM and dash off to the elevator bank with a blender.
Some items go fast, but some need to be relisted for months before they find their new home. Like the enormous hanging chair that our friends always made fun of us for having in our living room (I did NOT know that it looked like a sex swing when I bought it!) or, um, that first wedding dress I bought on eBay and then decided I didn't like. (The internet giveth; and the internet finally tooketh away.)
Most of the stuff we're getting rid of we couldn't really care less about, but there are a few exceptions.
First on that list is probably the apartment itself. I am pretty sure we have the best apartment in the tristate area, if not the whole country. It's huge, it has picture windows and a balcony looking right out onto the New York City skyline, it has a washer-dryer in the apartment, and it is cheap. I'll go on. There's a free indoor public pool a few blocks away AND a place that sells 8 churros for $1. We have terrific neighbors and the building is half a block from the bus stop; the buses come frequently and it's a 10-minute ride to Times Square with no traffic. Seriously, I still think we're a little nuts to be giving all this up.
I can't seem to find any apartment pics, but here's a panorama taken recently from our balcony by the awesome Liesl Henrichsen:
Still, the place did get a little chilly (OK, bone-chillingly cold) in winter. And, the open road calls. So we're clearing out.
Second is my sweet little poop machine, Dennis Hopper.
Andy's mom is taking the cat while we're gone, but no one seems quite game for taking on Denny. So, next week, we're going to be giving him back to the Rabbit Rescue group we adopted him from. I am sad, and they aren't thrilled either since they now have to find him a new home. We've taken good care of him for three years, so at least he's fairly used to people--I hope that he'll find a wonderful forever home quickly, hopefully with people who can give him more space and more attention than I ever could.
Sniff.
And, of course, there are all of you, whom I will miss terribly. =( Try not to have too many babies while we're gone, OK? I like to meet'em when they're new.
One thing I will not be missing is work, where I was until 9:30 tonight. Staying that late is basically unheard of at the publishing house where I have worked for the last 6.5 years, but of course, it had to happen in my second-to-last week there. Lucky Andy got himself laid off with severance a few weeks ago (best layoff timing EVER), so he just rolls out of bed at 10 each day and busies himself with stuff like crossword puzzles and creating nifty travel blogs. Tough life.
And since I have work tomorrow morning, it's off to bed with me. Thanks for reading the first of, I hope, many posts.
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