On Moving: Friendships, Staplers, a Loehmann's Card + Blockbusters

I am the absolute worst mover because I can't stop looking through every photo album and I find a distraction at every corner. Will I need these ink cartridges some day? What to do with reporter notebooks that are only a quarter filled with notes? Why do I have a fancy tin of old stamps? Does this mean anything to me? Why do I have three staplers and seven boxes of staples?

Packing up my office is one of the hardest zones because it is charged with so many memories. Tonight I unearthed a smattering of library cards (Bronxville Library, Hiram Halle Memorial Library, West Tisbury Library, Chilmark Library) that track my life path from Westchester to Martha's Vineyard. Other fun things found on the shelves include a whimsically painted hat made out of newspaper that my sister created for my son on his 1st birthday. Oh, and there are those crazy shots of camping with great friends. (One Friday afternoon, we decided to head north out of Manhattan, rented a car and LEFT! Let's just say, we didn't pack smartly. By the time we got to the Berkshires, night was approaching. We set up our campsite and went into town for a pizza. Thinking we knew the lay of the land, we lit the campsite fire, laid the box of pizza on it to heat up, and watched our dinner go up in smoke. That was also the night we left an open bag of donuts outside the tent on the picnic table and later heard what sounded like a bear eating our Dunkin' Donut bounty.)

One of the things that is quite obvious when making a move and pouring through photo albums is seeing which friends are still with you. A scant few are sadly, and literally, "gone." Most of them, I'm delighted to say, are still in my life and of my very, very best friends. There's a handful of them (and you know who you are) are present at milestone events through every decade since college.

This also makes me wonder ... how will we share all of the digital photos in years to come? We snap and snap and what's to share in the 3D? If someone doesn't know my password, how can I share photos of friends and vacations and celebrations? (I'm just sayin'.)

Another thing that is very clear: I am truly blessed with a frabjous life.