Last night, I discovered that four whole people could fit onto my couch if they were so inclined. This afternoon, I no longer have a couch. How’s that for a paradigm shift?
My first Bon Voyage party went off nicely. Although I overbaked the first batch of cakes, the second batch oozed gratifyingly, so at least everyone got to see what was supposed to happen. And of the two things that can go wrong with those cakes, that is by far the lesser evil.
See, this recipe involves melting butter and chocolate, and then stirring the warm mixture into eggs and sugar. “Careful,” my mother remarked when we first tested the recipe. “If you pour in too much hot liquid at once, the eggs will cook.”
A couple of years down the road, apparently realizing only now what a neurotic adult I have become, her favorite thing to say to me is “Relax.” Seriously? Because I’m the one standing there in the middle of the night without a handy extra dozen eggs praying that I am not about to make the nastiest omelette ever.
Anyway.
Although somehow I ended up with more alcohol than I had before the party, I believe that it has helped me to get rid of some much larger items, even if my current couchless state was predestined before the event was even planned. Electronics were claimed, and end tables were pitched, and we will wait to see how much I can get rid of before the end of the month (luckily, I am only a few blocks from a Goodwill).
The main problem is that while everyone lusts after my bookcase, no one is entirely sure that they are prepared to try to take it up my two steps, down four flights of stairs (no way it goes in the elevator), and into a van that no one has arranged for yet. Andrea, honey, you still have first dibs–make a plan and it is yours.
This afternoon, though, just as promised, Glenn arrived in his family’s minivan, and we figured out how to reverse IKEA’s brilliant assembly processes (thank God I saved the stupid hexagonal wrench thingies). And when I got back and saw the giant hole in my living room, I finally felt like something was really done.