First of all, it's very, very hot. Not that this is unusual, exactly, here in the south...in the summer, sure, it's hot. But somehow compiled with the boxes we're slowly filling with the random contents of drawers (trinkets and old photographs), the crew of handymen who have suddenly appeared to make improvements to our house before the new tenants arrive and all the other details, emotions and conversations related to leaving...for good...the heat seems abnormally oppressive. While I'd like to take a long, cold shower and relax with a cold beer and good friends and just be generally lazy and slow, instead, everything has taken on this air of urgency. And I'm constantly reminded that every time I do something it could be the last time I do it for a while, because we're not going to live in North Carolina anymore.

I generally try and avoid the saccharin displays of weepiness that often accompany this kind of life change, but this time I can't really help myself and have found it necessary to quickly alter my thoughts ("Think about something funny! Think about something funny!") on several recent occasions when going over the various social events we have planned for the next few weeks. I mean, crying when I actually say goodbye is one thing, but just crying in the middle of day? That's different.

And, I mean, it's most difficult when I think about people - our friends - but not limited to that. This morning, J and I went to one of my favorite coffee places, Three Cups, where they are, yeah, a little snobby, only serving press pot coffee and all, but believe me, it's so good you don't care, and when we were leaving J mentioned that we should bring my brother, Vinnie, there sometime because he'd probably like it, and I reminded him that there wasn't any time left for Vinnie to come visit us, because we are moving. And J said, but yeah, we'll be back, and I just stood there with my paper cup, and thought that yes, it's true, it's not like we're never coming back here, but we're not going to live here anymore, and it's a range of emotions I feel when I think thoughts like that - excited and sad and nostalgic and ready - but it's certainly complicated, not something like simple stress or grumpiness that I could always appease with a cup of really amazingly good coffee, especially when very minor things like the very coffee shop where you bought it is one of the things, even just one of the minor things, I will miss.

After the excitement of celebrating J's PhD, having family and friends in town and traveling up to D.C. to see even more friends at a big party this weekend died down, I found myself sitting in my parents' house in Alexandria Sunday, absolutely exhausted. So, even though it was about 100 million degrees outside, I decided to take a bath. My parents have a fairly big bathtub and, even better, have a rather incredible assortment of bath products - so many a person could really get caught up trying them all out. Bath salts? Sure. Foot scrub? Definitely. Most of this stuff is sitting around unused, since my parents aren't really the bath types. They're more the quick shower, coffee and get moving types, which, honestly, I like better too, but every once in a while it's nice to do something totally unnecessary and relaxing like breathing in the scents of aromatherapy crystals or, you know, whatever you've got at your disposal.

The other thing that was so great about my Sunday afternoon, was that it was the first time in a while I'd been completely alone.

Give me the choice between a quiet night in by myself and a loud party with hundreds of friends and strangers and I'll take the party nine times out of 10, so when I feel like I want to be alone, I really need it. So, since J was off gallivanting at the local wildlife preserve and marsh, looking for another bird species to add to his Life List, I played around with some really expensive facial exfoliant and took a nice long soak in the bathtub. I mean, it wasn't that long, because, seriously, it's hot as hell outside, but still, it was exactly what I needed.

Doing things like that for yourself every once in a while really makes a difference, and now that we're really on the brink of moving (August 29) and haven't, ah, really done any sort of substantial packing, and are thinking about houses and jobs and money and driving the moving truck, I'm going to have to remember to take a break every now and then so I don't, you know, lose it. Beat people up.

So I thought maybe in the comments section people could share their favorite ways to relax. Anything, because I know mine range from the really simple, like watching the Food Network, to the really extravagant, like getting an $100 massage.

Even though I'm using my current state of mind as a springboard, it's not all for my benefit. I figure everyone feels better when they hear that other people get anxious and need to de-stress every now and then. It always makes me feel good to hear people's tips, recipes, etc. after I write a post. That's one of my favorite things about writing a blog...the feeling of connectivity with all these people.

So let's hear it. I'll start - A good glass of wine at the end of the day. What? You didn't think I didn't know about that one already, did you?

In which I become nostalgic before I've even left

The need to relax while in the midst of packing hundreds of heavy books