today, another major moving offensive. i woke up to news that they had arrested two people in connection to the washington d.c. area sniper (later turned out they weren't directly related to the shootings). this morning my father came to pick me up in cambridge, 
where i was returning to belmont to move some more stuff, mainly, more boxes of books. my parents were donating their queen sized bed to me, so all the pieces of the bed were already disassembled when i got there. they also took the opportunity to remove the old carpet in their bedroom and throw that out. years worth of dust coated the air, there was a lot of sneezing.
i moved more things to my house, including the bed frame (the mattress was too big to move). i spent the next hour repairing paint damage on the walls with a small watercolor brush, fixing the master bedroom (some spots where the blue paint had peeled off along with the tape, the latex didn't adhere properly to the drywall) and the living room. 
late afternoon, i was once again in belmont, this time with a large moving van my father was borrowing from their antique dealer neighbor next door. i filled up two more large boxes of books (i have a lot of books), and then my father and i moved the mattress and three wooden bookcases. 
the mattress wasn't so bad because it's bendy, but the bookcases were like a puzzle with a strong component of physical strength tied to it. we tilted, we slid, we moved it halfway into one room so we could turn it to move out into another room. back in cambridge though, the move was a breeze, my front door and foyer are situated in such a way that it was a straight line into the living room.
with moving done, i met up with shannon and together we went to harvard square to pho pasteur, followed by ice cream (ben & jerry's, i had the chunky monkey, didn't realize it had bananas in it, in hindsight, kind of weird eating ice cream on a cold autumn night, but the cookie cone was good), followed by going upstairs and gawking at the alt kids getting pierced and cut, and to the theatre to see heaven starring cate blanchett and giovanni ribisi. 
an interesting start, a case of mistaken bombing, but then the movie spirals into theatre silencing strangeness. shannon and i made inappropriate comments to each other whenever the opportunity presented itself on the screen (there were plenty). corrupt italian policemen, drug boss, skinhead emulation, all wrapped around a little love story (somewhat out of left field, but let's be honest, it's not too hard to fall in love with cate blanchett), with an ending so surprising and so shocking, you'll leave the theatre scratching your head.
after the movie, shannon and i walked in the direction of porter square. i went home (cambridge home), my mother coming by to give me a ride back to belmont after she closed up the shop.
which brings me here tonight. it feels weird, most of my stuff is gone, i can't even sleep in my old bedroom because it's such a mess from all the moving. i'm spending the night in the guest bedroom instead, with it's starchy sheets and lumpy mattress. i took a shower and had to search hard to find some clothes to wear. i feel sad in a way. this house in belmont that i've called my home for almost two decades, is starting to become less and less my home. this is probably something everyone goes through, it's just taken me a little bit longer than most people. i had goosebumps walking into my old bedroom and seeing how empty it is. these walls that i've painted one 4th of july summer many years ago. the layout of the room so ingrained in my memory that i can navigate around in the dark. i'm going to miss belmont, but i look forward to living in cambridge.