This weekend was, in turns, kickass and asskicking.
Saturday was the Boston Book Festival and the turnout was in the thousands, even though it was raining and was one of the windiest days I have ever encountered in Boston. I saw a tribute to Chris Van Allsburg and then booked it over to Richard Russo. Waited in line for 20 minutes to see John Hodgman and then made it to the hallway meet and greet with Cornel West who is every bit as larger than life as I imagined he would be.
Then I wandered through all of the booths, fell in love with the Paris Review representative, proposed, we were married right there and... oh wait... maybe not all true. But he was a pretty cool dude and we waxed nostalgic about old Paris Review haps.

I then ate a bagel. Outside. In the wind. Which was so strong that it literally BLEW tufts of cream cheese off the bagel and into the air. Covered in cream cheese I stood in line for half an hour to get into the David Gergan, Jack Beatty, Michael Porter debate on the Obama Year, moderated by Tom Ashbrook. It was about 750 degrees in the lecture hall but the debate was well worth it and the audience was not nearly as solid lefty as you might imagine for a political debate at a public library during a book festival in Boston. David Gergan is, I think, one of the busiest people on the planet. I don't think he sleeps. He was also a fierce debater and solidly astute. Jack Beatty and Michael Porter were kind of all over the place (focusing mainly on big business and capitalism) and the one woman guest (I canNOT remember her name) was kind of Eh... but Tom Ashbrook was as entertaining as you would imagine though I always think it's a little weird seeing radio personalities in the flesh- they never look like what you would think and it sort of colors how I hear their voice afterwards.

Anyhow, I left that lecture and booked it across the street just in time to slid into the Keynote Talk by Orhan Pamuk. It was held in a large church, interestingly enough, and the place was literally packed to the rafters. I sidled into a crevice on the stairs, quite close to the stage. I have been reading Paul Theroux's Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and just last weekend and there was a chapter where he was in Istanbul and met Pamuk at a dinner party. His description of the writer was spot.on. A little fidgety, a little cantankerous but full of life and eager to talk, peppering his reading with little bursts of sarcasm and wit. Turned questions decidedly away from politics and was totally enthused to present readings fro his newest tome "The Museum of Innocence", which I haven't had the chance to read but is a massive love story, as only Pamuk can create. It was awesome.

Yesterday, high on the wind of authors and whimsy, it all came crashing down when I awoke at 6am to get the Uhaul which my roommate was scared to drive. Since the rain on Saturday cancelled the friends we had lined up to help us, it was just the two of us moving all of the furniture- dressers, beds, couches, 7 bookcases, living room crap- oh man. It sucked. 3 flights of stairs - living on the 3rd floor is going to be great but moving things up to the 3rd floor is not so great. Thighs, arms, shoulders and head (I like to balance things on my head when I move, distribute the weight) are all shot. And my roommate and I are totally insane because after we made two Uhaul trips and at the very least over 56 trips up the stairs each (Pat was annoyingly keeping count) we went BACK over last night to have a couple of beers and put together some of the bookcases. You know the ones, the "Expedit" from Ikea?! Pretty to look at but a nightmare to put together. Pat and I certainly do not resemble The Happy Swedes armed with their allen wrenches and wooden pegs that the instructions show when we are putting these things together- though we are almost experts at them now, having assembled and disassembled mine over 6 times now. I am thinking of putting an ad on craigslist showcasing this particular talent that we have perfected... it can be something like couchswapping... we'll go and put the maddening thing together for someone and they can come, oh, I don't know, light our pilot light for us, since it's something we both hate to do.

Anyway, we're nearly moved in and we officially get to stay there next weekend, so things are starting to look up