A Message from the Oval Office

I guess I'm getting a little anxious about the move. This morning in a half-awake dream I distinctly heard George W. Bush say: "Because of the corruption in Iraq, everybody has a VERY LONG LIST OF THINGS TO DO." I woke up in a cold sweat.

There are advantages to moving halfway around the world, of course. You get to throw out all the underwear you never liked very much. You finally go through that box of stuff you've been dragging from apartment to apartment for ten years - the box of old letters and documents that you've never unpacked. People have parties for you and say nice things and give you cake. The to-do lists really are a killer, though.

The Pile keeps morphing. I think it's getting smaller. In a way that's a relief, but really I know it's either going into landfills, or going to Goodwill where it'll become part of somebody else's pile of stuff. Matter cannot be created or destroyed. That's never more clear than when you're moving.