Thanks to a colossal effort on the part of ourselves, our friends, and our family... we now live in a townhome with absolutely no furniture whatsoever. Instead of couches, we sit on carpet. Instead of a bed, we have an air matress in the middle of the living room. Instead of a desk, I type this on top of a TV tray. Instead of television or DVD, we stare at each other.

Around Tuesday, the moving company we hired (remember Hillbilly Jeff?) informed us that if we don't want to wait for 2 weeks in California for our possessions to arrive, we should darn well have our goods on the truck by Saturday morning. "As in this coming Saturday? But I have to work all week and Carey can't fling this place together by herself... out of the question!" The movers said they'd see if the driver would be willing to wait until Monday to load us up. They called the driver and got back to us the next day... no dice on Monday.

Well, a mighty panic ensued, resulting in about 3.5 hours of sleep a night, our home thrown into chaos, ruin, and cardboard boxes... a very disagreeable Jeremy and Carey... and two very nervous cats to top it all off.

We called in the reinforcements on Thursday. Tom and Christie Burns flew over to help us gather boxes and pack the kitchen. Soon, Johanna Matheny arrived to sort out the bedroom and other little chunks of nightmare that we didn't want to have to deal with. Later in the evening, bless her bless her bless her, my mother cleared out her schedule and blasted onto the scene, Han Solo-style, to rescue us from certain calamity.

Yesterday (Friday) was a holy tornado. An absolute fury of packing, sorting, taping, boxing, lifting, shuffling, and what-have-you. Kelly Hassenzahl, whose energy and charity has been proven to be tireless, came over midway through the day to tackle the bathroom. Later, my sister and her boyfriend (whose name is, legitimately, Steve Martin) arrived to help tie up the loose ends.

And, in the end, we made it. We really did. The whole place. Packed. Boxed. And Carey and I cannot thank our wonderful friends and family enough. Tom, Christie, Johanna, Kelly, Lauren, Steve... we couldn't have done it without you. You really are the best. But, most of all... Mom, you never cease to amaze us with your boundless giving. If not for you, we'd have been licked. Thank you ad infinitum.

And, then, this morning, the movers came, which was its own adventure. More to come.

posted by Jeremy Bear 3:01 PM

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Tuesday, July 09, 2002

We have a place to live. Praise be.

As of July 27, 2002, Carey and I will be residents of Long Beach, California. Appleton Street, in fact.

Extra oodles of thanks to Kelly Larned and Nate Brown for physically scouring the city for us, while we sat back here in Columbus and tried our best to do the same digitally. I'll post the actual address and phone # and all that jazz as soon as I get it.

posted by Jeremy Bear 6:13 PM

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