Whyfor all this limping? you may ask. (Okay, you probably wouldn't ask, at least not in quite that way, unless you were me being particularly silly, since I don't think I've ever heard anyone else say 'whyfor', though it does sound vaguely Tolkienish to me, so maybe Bilbo says it. No, I don't think so. Anyway.)
Packing is the culprit. Evil boxes. Evil 19 book boxes packed and still some books left to go. Evil 7 boxes of miscellaneous crap and random clothes. Evil bending and stretching to reach things. Evil unused muscles, especially the one just above my hip which is making it difficult to bend at all, even to pour tea. If all I had to do today was type, I'd be fine, but unfortunately the rest of the morning will be more boxes. Then lunch with Karen and Par, then shopping (which will probably take more bending and stretching, no?) for clothes with Karen, then dinner with Arthur. Lots of visiting to cram into very little time.
It's been an odd trip. Mostly good, but I've been hit by stabs of sadness at unexpected moments. Driving south as Jed and I left the airport -- the city just looked beautiful, and the air felt rich. I was going to list more, but I think it'll make me sad again, so I'll stop.
Mostly it's been marvelous. Had a really nice evening and morning with Jed, then we went to El and Ian's wedding, which was fabulous. I'll get some photos up as soon as I can and describe it then; there were so many cool details to that wedding. But there's at least one I should mention now -- at the end of the ceremony they distributed little triangular paper boxes, telling us to hold them carefully and not open them yet. We were supposed to whisper our good wishes to the boxes, and then open them together. When we did, we found butterflies inside each one, which slowly and courageously took to the air (for their first time), carrying our messages to the gods. Incredible.
At the reception it was really nice seeing everyone again -- some people hadn't realized that I'd moved away, so there was lots of catching up, and lots of goodbyes at the end. Meep. A good party, but mixed feelings. Ian and El looked so happy, though.
Sunday, David helped me pack. Ian and El came back from the bed and breakfast they'd stayed at, and we took a break from packing to watch them open presents (I'm exercising my one-year-from-wedding-option, as allowed by Miss Manners). Jim and Aaron (friends of theirs and slightly mine) were around too, and they helped some when we went back to packing. Then Lydia and the girls came by, which was lovely, since I got to go through the jewelry and clothes and tchotchkes I was packing and pass quite a few along for dress-up (girls) or dress patterns (Lydia). A couple of bags will also go to Goodwill today, but it's amazing, truly amazing, the amount of stuff I have. And I *took* a lot of it in July. Lord.
Dinner with David at Cafe Colucci (Ethiopian, which is nonexistent in Utah), and then I pretty much crashed. I think he was talking to me when I fell asleep. Don't remember. And you know about this morning already (limping. pain. see? you remembered.)
It's 8 now, so we'd best get going on the day. It's really a good thing I have a lot of work to do; it keeps me from getting weepy.