Stacy B. Has Left the Building

I have officially moved from New York. The movers came yesterday and carted everything away, and then they delivered all of my stuff this morning to lovely Havre de Grace, Maryland -- home of my storage place and The Decoy Museum.

I forgot how much I hate moving. In fact, if I had remembered how much it sucks, I probably would never have quit my job or planned the trip. Packing is sooooo bourgeois. Even worse, I forgot that when you move, you have to clean the apartment really well...better than I would ever clean for me...or even if my parents were visiting. I spent so long scrubbing down my refrigerator, probably the first time I actually did that in the two years that I lived there. Next time, I'm just throwing out the refrigerator itself, with all the other nasty things that I never used. (Ask me why I had a jar of capers in my fridge for two years -- I hate them, as do most civilized human beings.)

Fortunately, after cleaning out my fridge, it was lunchtime. I swung by Joe's Superette and grabbed some ham balls for lunch and the drive out of town -- it was a sweet way to end my time in Brooklyn. After all, it was a trip to the Gowanus Yacht Club and Joe's on Memorial Day weekend a few years ago that convinced me to move to Carroll Gardens in the first place. (The day was spent outside in the sunshine, drinking pitchers and eating ham balls, which my friend Hector, visiting from out of town, suggested that we hunt down. It was truly one of the most sublime afternoons since the dawn of time.)

I leave for Argentina in less than two days. Now that the move is done, I'm starting to get really excited. One good omen -- on Monday night, as I was finishing up packing my apartment, I turned on the tv and the movie Jamon, Jamon was on. I think it's a sure sign of the fantastic wonderfulness that lies (or is it lays?) ahead.