Moving Reflections

Some highlights of the last few days:

• I think I've cried more times in the last two weeks than I have in the last four years combined. (OK - that's a slight exaggeration.) My last Oneida cry was when I was leaving my strangely empty house there. My first cry here was when my mother and brother went back home to Central New York. I've been telling everyone about how my mother cried when she left, but not the part about me crying too - so here's my confession! I really hate crying. But I guess of all the crying I could do, this week has been full of the good kind.
  

• I've already misplaced (and found, thankfully) both my set of office keys and my set of house keys. The house keys I just set down in the restroom. But the office keys - I actually left those on the roof of my car. And then I drove around town and at speeds of at least 40mph. And then I thought to check on the roof of my car for my keys. And there they were!
  

• I've already met a fellow vegetarian at Franklin Lakes UMC. He's been vegetarian for a few years now - and he's ten! How neat is that?
  

• The parsonage here has heated floors in the entry way. Seriously!

• The parsonage committee members had the tables decorated with tablecloths, centerpieces, and place mats when I arrived, and had gotten me a lovely bouquet of flowers.

• I've forgotten about driving in New Jersey. I have to learn how to be cutthroat and aggressive again...
  

• Here is my last sermon at St. Paul's, and my first sermon at Franklin Lakes.
  

Packing and Moving

Now that I am finally cast-free, I have to begin the oh-so-fun work of packing and making arrangements with movers. I have a moving company lined up, although I am checking out one more company that I just recently had recommend to me. Sorting through all the different companies and trying to do an inventory of my stuff has been a challenge. Just how many bookshelves do I have? How many end tables? And I'm trying to be careful about reading all the fine print. What charges are going to show up on the day of the move that weren't included in my estimate? Do you all have any good/bad moving experiences to share?

Packing is a different story. My parsonage is huge - both here, actually, and in Franklin Lakes, and I'm just one person. And one cat. Ok, and one brother. My actor brother Todd is moving with me to New Jersey - he's thrilled he'll be so close to NYC. But he's also technically lived with me here in Oneida. It's just hard to count him because he's on tour or working in another state so often that usually it is more accurate to say Todd stores his stuff with me than that Todd lives with me. I had to accumulate stuff when I moved here just to have something to put in this five bedroom parsonage. I moved here straight from seminary, where I basically had a dorm-room amount of possessions. But, I accumulated.

Like many people moving, I suspect, I'm trying to be careful in my packing to decide what I really want. Do I need all this stuff? This coming Sunday the lectionary is my favorite gospel lesson - the first text I ever preached on - the one where the man decides to build bigger barns to store all his grain (Luke 12:13-21) God says to the man, "These things you have - whose will they be?" How many knick-knacks do I need to be happy with my home? How many DVDs that I never watch? How many place settings do I need for two people and a cat? How many pots and pans does someone who hates cooking really need?

Tell me about your moving/packing experiences, please. Any great pearls of wisdom?