Overwhelmed 2

I was going to write this as a preface to a 53 Best Moon Is No More Songs post but it got too long so it has become it's own post.

I just want to convey that I have been extremely busy ever since the beginning of December. Molly and I are going to be leaving our cozy little home in Franklin for the next 5 months and heading down to Louisiana. We'll be assisting with the relief work that continues on down there. Once we had been there in October we knew we couldn't resist if an opportunity arose to visit for a longer period of time. The atmosphere is infectious. My final day at work is January 31st, and we'll leave on a three day drive that night.

In the meantime, we've been busy doing everything that could possibly be crammed into two months:

• Thought about selling the house (even having a realtor out twice to evaluate and compare) but that just didn't make sense in the end
• Tried renting the house to people we know, but honestly, who wants to rent for 5 months?
• Had someone in to plaster two bedrooms/bathroom, and add tile above our shower
• Painting two bedrooms/bathroom
• New faucet on our sink because it was leaking (then this morning we found out the new faucet dumped tons of water into our downstairs neighbors' closet - just the thing I need right now)
• Selling my car (which hasn't sold yet; click here to see the Cars.com listing)
• Bought a truck (2001 Nissan Frontier)
• Packing stuff
• Selling stuff on eBay, which is fun but physically and emotionally draining ... kind of
• Trying to have one last "hoo-ray" with people around here
• Watching the Patriots in the playoffs, which is very nerve-wracking this time around
• Found an apartment in Baton Rouge
• Still trying to get the lease officially signed
• Trying to plan finances for the next 5 months without any income
• Canceled unnecessary home services for while we're gone (say goodbye to the excellent Franklin home phone number we've had for the past 4 years; we'll never find a number as good as that one, it was truly a sleeper, underappreciated at first, it took time for the beauty of that number to sink in)
• Watching the Celtics stink it up on a nightly basis
• Planning a route to Baton Rouge
• Got people to help us drive to Baton Rouge
• Getting plane tickets to get the helpers back to Massachusetts (thank you, Gary)
• Putting in a change of address at the post office (but I'm still not sure what the address will be)
• Worked out a leave of absence with my job
• Trying to finish numerous projects before I leave my job
• Three theocratic parts in three weeks leading up to our leave (demonstration, highlights, and book study conducting, the last one just two days before we leave)
• First snow of the winter just hit

Whew! I can't wait, though!

If I can think of anything else (and I'm sure there's something else) I'll add it to the list.