A Packed Weekend

I've been a little on the quiet side the past few days. So here is a quicky...

My mom came into town yesterday, and she's spending the weekend with me while I pack. Packing is a lot like moving in. Except instead of taking things out of boxes and pushing them around in circles over and over and over again, I'm taking things off shelves and pushing them around in circles over and over and over again, occasionally gathering groups of them together to stuff haphazardly into a box to be sent off home with my mom when she leaves tomorrow afternoon.

When she does finally disappear I'm going to be reduced to a few books, changes of clothes, my laptop, and some crossword puzzles. That spread between a hiking backpack and an overstuffed satchel. And when, at last, April comes to an end, so too does my lease and I'll be on the road like some modern day hippy beat fellow, sleeping on people's couches while writing fiction and trying to become a college graduate. It all sounds so romantic and beat like some expatriate in France. Except in Chicago and I'm not an alcoholic (most days).

It's starting to make everything more and more realistic, which still leaves me with the sneaking suspicion that this is going to turn into one large and very expensive candid camera with my councilor telling me that, "oh, by the way, you've got another semester and six grand to go. Sorry." I meet with her on Tuesday so we'll see how that goes down.

And suddenly I'm far more tired than I anticipated, and my urge to continue updating dropped to just below nil.