Imagine no possessions!

"Everybody's movin'
if they ain't already there.
Everybody got to move
somewhere
Stick with me baby
Stick with me anyhow
Things should start to get interesting
right about now."
--- bob dylan, 'mississippi'

I would like to state for the record that it took me only 2 1/2 hours to pack.

That's right. I waited until the last minute (hello) and although I am leaving for New York tomorrow and I started packing around 9 p.m. tonight, I will still get a full night's sleep. That, my friends, is the glorious result of shedding extraneous crap.

I have really been enjoying my new hobby of selling my books on Half.com. I love seeing what people will buy, and what they will pay for it. I really love getting rid of some of my books. So far I have sold about 10-15% of my books through that site. I even like sitting here at the computer packaging them up to ship while listening to music and chatting with friends on-line. At first I used padded envelopes, but I quickly realized that the cost of those bubble envelopes almost erased any profit I'd make. (Half.com reimburses for shipping, a flat rate, but those envelopes are like $1.40, so when you're selling books for $2 you don't want to spend $1.40 just on the envelope!)

Then I remembered when we used to have to cover our textbooks in elementary school, particularly in SAGE (the gifted education program). Those who were there, remember how obsessed Mrs. Muscato was with making us cover our books at the beginning of the year? We had to take them home and cover them with a brown paper grocery bag. But it totally worked. Brilliant, thought I, I will wrap my Half.com books in grocery bags to send them out, thus recycling the bags and packaging for free. So far, no complaints, and buyers have reported that the books arrived in good condition. Excellent!

As for what I haven't sold, I am bequeathing my remaining possessions to my friend Liza's production's garage sale fundraiser or else to my roommates here at the house (the futon, for example). The entirety of what I am moving can fit into a compact car, and so it shall when I drive it down to Long Island.

And speaking of that, Hofstra has placed me in housing! I have received my official housing assignment in one of the grad student/professional on-campus complexes.

I haven't started my homework yet, though.

I was so productive today! I did laundry, talked to friends, sold some books for quick cash in hand at used bookstores in Cambridge, watched the end of the Red Sox loss, etc...not to mention packing in under three hours!

A parting thought, from one of the books I sent out today, If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino:

"Renouncing things is less difficult than people believe: it's all a matter of getting started. Once you've succeeded in dispensing with something you thought essential, you realize you can also do without something else, then without many other things. So here I am walking along this empty surface that is the world."