For all of you who are wondering where I am in the process of my move, here is some information. I am treading water at the moment, stuck in a kind of limbo where I've got the job, got the resources to actually move, but I have no idea to where in Manhattan I am actually moving. I'm moving May 1st, and all my sources tell me that I shouldn't bother looking until mid-March or early-April, because, to paraphrase my new best friend Leon the realtor, that "Cozy, south facing 1BR in a 5th floor walkup that will give me the legs of my dreams" will most likely be gone by then.

So, what do I do in the meantime. Every day I obsessively peruse craigslist. One, I do this as break from the monotony of dissecting state standards and curriculum. At first I felt somewhat guilty, but then I reminded myself that conducting this very important research is in the interests of my job and is also being done to contribute to the strength of the my company's literature product line. Were I not relocating, my company would suffer a crushing blow. Okay, maybe that sort of rationalization is a tad extreme, but it's what I do to get make amends with the fact that I might have a "soft addiction" as Robin Young on NPR's "Here and Now" recently coined it. I know that I will probably not end up in the "Pimpin' hot 2BR in Hell's Kitchen," but reading about it somehow keeps me riding on the wave of the move, so that I don't slow down my thinking about it long enough to question whether it is the right decision.

What else do I do? Sit in my livingroom at night, laptop gaping at me, bookmarked to craigslist, eyes darting around the house making mental lists of all the things that I will sell, get rid of, heave to the curb, and basically just purge from my life as I take the next step. Among the items that will be showcased at my pre-move yard sale are the Putamayo world music collections and Rounder Records blues compilations that I was so fortunate to end up with in my recent split. If I hear "Music From the Coffee Lands" or "Black Top Blues Party" one more time, I might break one of the cd's apart and take it to my wrist.