Breaking orbit with Planet Brooklyn

It's probably fair to say that 30% of a move like this gets done in the last week, regardless of the work done before.

So the last week has been pretty intense.

On move day, the moving company Sea & Air (which had sent a representative out to evaluate the cubic footage of our belongings, and on that basis advised that we go with a 20ft container) reported that there was an overflow of about 350 cubic feet. This would of course be shipped, but a modest and undisclosed surcharge above anything listed in our agreement! Impotent grrrrr!! I had suspected something vague when the owner of the company sounded like Borat, but told myself not to be such a snob. Ah well, sometimes gut feelings, even unkind ones, are to be followed.

The day after move day, Anno noticed that a piece of jewellery was missing. It was my great-grandmother's ring, and had been in a closed jewellery case, in a closed suitcase, in a closed cupboard in our master bedroom. Pretty enterprising. Sea & Air was piss-poor in the empathetic listening (to say nothing of 'actually doing something about it') department. Deep sigh. I called the 71st precint (laughable), but we decided to just focus on getting on the plane without having any more hiccoughs.

And so, with my parents, Nazmin and L. waving from our soon the be ex-stoop, our neighbour Foster drove us to JFK (thanks Foster!). Anno and I were utterly frazzled from the exit, and I'm pleased to report that no vital documentation was misplaced in the various states of disrobing required of modern travel.

Once on the plane, with a fist full of bubbly, I let myself calm down a little. It seemed like we had spent a summer of increasingly granular to-do lists, and that things had finally come to where I could do nothing further.

With S. fast asleep in the seat next to mine, her hair plastered to her forehead, I turned to see Anno (who was sitting a few rows behind due to seating map glitch) resting both her hands on her belly staring vacuously at the screen in front of her.

I caught her eye and raised my glass, as the glassy ocean raced on below us.