On Tuesday of this week, AEJ and I moved away from New York City. The day before The Big Move, here’s how my apartment looked…

Okay, that’s the living room. Not so bad, really. The bedroom was a bit more indicative of how things were:

AEJ’s place, too, seemed to indicate “we’re moving.”

Loki found the packing process pretty interesting, and a little exciting, but for the most part, he was cool with it. Just don’t mess with Loki.

After packing, AEJ and I ran a few errands (returning our cable boxes, having a last lunch at The Shake Shack, etc.) and then (insert drum roll here!) we went to pick up our brand new car! This was the first new car for either of us, and we were really excited to pick it up. Isn’t it cute?

Here’s Martin, our salesman at the dealership. He was funny — and actually a pleasure to work with! It turns out that not all car salesmen are insufferable. If anybody is in the market for a new Volkswagen, go see Martin in Manhattan!

Here’s AEJ, about to get into the car for the first time.

After leaving the dealership, we drove around a little, then headed downtown to pick up Newman & Melissa. The four of us had dinner back uptown, and then got dessert. Sundaes as big as your head!

Early the next morning, the movers arrived. It took them until 6pm to finish loading all of our stuff onto the truck. (AEJ’s apartment is across the street from mine, so there were two apartments to pack into the massive 18-wheel semi.)

The movers were great. There were a few snags, but on the whole, it seemed to go about as well as it could. One crazy thing about moving like this is that you pay for the move by the pound — so you end up knowing exactly how much your stuff weighs. Think about this for a minute. If you took every belonging you had and put it on a scale, how much would it weigh? I mean, I knew that my digital piano weighed about 100 pounds, and my speakers were 100 pounds each, and I know how much my TV weighs, etc… But what about all of it? Guess. Go ahead — guess how much it all weighed — my stuff, plus AEJ’s stuff. The contents of two one-bedroom Manhattan apartments.

7,150 pounds. That’s right. More than three tons. We have way, way too much stuff. Or at least too much heavy stuff. And too much music, and too many books. (I’ll admit that 99.982% of the books belong to AEJ. I’m not, literate.

Here’s a picture of the semi that’s holding all of our stuff. By the time it arrives in LA, it’ll have the belongings of two other homes, too. Those trucks are big. (This picture is from AEJ’s phone.)

We’re now in a suburb of Chicago…

…and I need to write an entry about the drive so far (aren’t you curious how Loki is coping with car travel?), but it’s late, and we’re beat, so I’ll write more in a day or two…

I’ve wanted to write a blog entry, but really, there’s not much to say, since my days consist almost entirely of packing for the move to LA. I get up every morning, make coffee, and start packing. On some days, I get little done, as I’m easily distracted. “Oh look! An external hard drive! I should make a back-up of my User Folder.” “Wow – my old cycling glasses! These — hey! That’s not right. The little nose-pad is loose. I should get out my glue gun and fix that. Now, what box is that in?” “Oh look! A cassette of pop songs I recorded off the radio when I was in elementary school! I should unpack and hook up my cassette deck so I can listen to this while I pack.” The examples go on and on.

But then I have the realization that my entire apartment has to be ready to go by the end of the day on Monday, and looking at it now, it’s hard to imagine being ready. But when that truck pulls up at 8am on Tuesday, whether I’m ready or not, I’m movin’.

By Jeff Dunn, in the most recent San Francisco Classical Voice:

“The second Saturday concert introduced two additional composers new to the Festival, John Mackey (no relation to composer Steven) and Stewart Wallace, whose Harvey Milk was performed by the San Francisco Opera in 1996. Both composers provided highly entertaining works, expertly performed by Alsop’s crew. Mackey’s Redline Tango is a true dazzler, eliciting a powerful audience response. “Redline” refers to a limit marked on gauges by engineers. In Mackey’s case, the engine is the orchestra, and it gets pushed into the danger zone right away by frantic pacing, with only hints of a tango to come. The hell-bent engine segues into a flamboyant tango of great inventiveness and humor. Although Mackey introduced himself to the audience as the “least ethnically interesting person in America,” his tango abounds with Latin and klezmer references. The swooping melody is carried on a virtuoso violin part. The theme gets ever more sleazy as it progresses before the piece ends with a reprise of the infectious chase music. John Mackey is a composer whose next visit to California is eagerly awaited.”

You can read the entire article here.