Change is Good

I spent the day today with Abbie, cleaning out my entire apartment (well, "cleaning" is an interesting choice of words here, as I was told by my landlord yesterday that I didn't need to clean the apartment before I left because they'd be re-doing the entire interior). We threw A LOT away, recycled a lot, took half a car-load to Goodwill (ask Abbie about her special donation of dead batteries), and took no less than 8 boxes to the post office.

It was a tiring day for me, as we were working so hard, and it was so difficult to see progress being made. Abbie was great at helping me see the progress, and at pushing me without frustrating me, and I couldn't have done it without her. The highlight of the day came when I walked into my "annex" and discovered it was entirely free of my stuff. Of course, this meant that all my stuff had been moved to the main section of my apartment, but it was satisfying to know it was all in the same room, at least.

Abbie had the brilliant idea that I bring my change to on of those "Coin Star" machines at Safeway to get some cash. Two Safeways later (the first had a machine that was out of order), I walked out with $36 (interestingly, the slip said "$36.46" but apparently they figure if you're coming in to get rid of change, you don't want your 34 cents...).

Then it was off to Zeitgeist (where the "Phoebe Zeitgeist" sign appeared to be missing - can someone please confirm/deny this horrible rumor?!) for beers and TAMALES (oh, Tamale Lady, how I shall miss you!) with the old Baker Beach crew, and then we finished up the night at Taqueria Cancun, with burritos and tostada de ceviche (I'm drooling just writing that!).

A great way to say farewell to this amazing city, and the wonderful friends I have here. Thank you all for coming out last night, and for calling from across the globe, and for helping me pack and helping take things off my hands and for being such a stellar group of friends. I can't even think of how much I will miss having you all in my life on a day-to-day, in-person basis - it is just too overwhelming. It's been a great adventure, out here on the left coast, and I can't wait to come back again soon.