This past weekend, Katsu and I drove up to my grandmother’s house

to help my mother and my aunts begin to pack the good china. Late last Thursday night, I also made a last-minute Uhaul rental, as I’d been told that Grandma’s beautiful red velvet loveseat

was now mine.

After an entirely sleepless Friday night, I spent most of Saturday morning emptying out my grandparents’ substantial liquor cabinet.

((before))

((after))

the doing of which made me unspeakably sad and incredibly nauseous at the same time. If there’s one thing you don’t want to do after being awake for 48 hours, it’s dump 10 gallons of 20-year-old booze down the drain – especially booze like Drambuie and sediment-laden peach schnapps. So when I got to the Uhaul facility and learned that I’d been “upgraded” to the from the 10-foot truck to the 14-foot truck,

I was in no shape to put up a fuss.

It took only minutes behind the wheel for me to realize the error of my complacency.

I spent the whole day stomping about, complaining (in an amusing way, I hope) about the size of this damn Uhaul. Lest you think I exaggerate, here’s a picture of what the thing looked like, when packed.

Yup. My feelings exactly. I felt that way all the way home. Here’s me at lunch today in Schenectady, 2 hours into our trip:

Katsumi was all “SMILE FOR THE CAMERA” and i was all, “why the fuck would i smile, this thing doesn’t even have a tape deck.” Plus, my feet didn’t really touch the floor, even though I had the seat pulled up so far I was practically humping the driveshaft.

Anyway, it was a long trip back for me, alone in the Uhaul with nothing but radio and nobody to talk to. But the most amazing thing had happened the night before we left:

We were at my aunt’s house having dinner, and there was this enormous double rainbow – you can kind of see it here:

It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.

I couldn’t get a good picture, but it actually went all the way across the sky. So we women all got kind of teared up and decided that it was my grandpa, who passed away in December 2006, thanking us for all our work.

The bottom line is really this:

Uhaul rental – $389
Uhaul insurance – $45
Gas for both cars- $200+
Tolls – $33
Crappy lunch in Schenectady – $15

Bringing home a piece of your childhood memories:

priceless.