the slow prep

My buddy Mike is on his way up to New York as I write this. Dad's at the hospital, nailing down tomorrow's departure time (for Mom's ambulance) and making other arrangements. My brother Sean just stepped out of the hotel room for a few moments, and I'm awake for no reason I can fathom.

We'll be leaving New York tomorrow. In theory, I can start prepping for departure today. There are no more space considerations for the minivan: I'll have so many open seats that, even if we went on a shopping spree, I'd have plenty of room for extra bags and boxes. When we came up to New York, interior space was a problem, but now, for the return trip, I'll be the only one in the car: Mom and Dad will both be in the ambulance going down to Walter Reed. Sean drove up separately, and David-- who had planned to return to New York on Sunday-- is already in the DC-Metro area and can just stay there. So along with the van's rear storage space (after folding over its rear seats), I'll have three extra chairs on which to place everything. We've also eaten up the majority of the supplies I'd brought with us, so there's actually less to bring back.

All in all, there's really no stress about prepping for tomorrow's trip, so I plan to take it slowly.

Happy New Year, all.


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