Friday we head out - if I ever get off of hold talking to Verizon

I'm on hold with the phone company. I have been for almost two hours, and can't seem to drag myself away from it now that I have so much time invested. We are trading our Verizon DSL service for their "Enhanced EV-DO Rev. A technology Wireless Modem" so we can post on the road. I am still in disbelief that the word extreme was nowhere on the packaging. I just hope it works and we can keep up with this blog without wasting time searching for wifi hotspots.

We have been busy the past week trying to clear out our little house in Baltimore. Emily had her last day at work on Thursday and can now focus completely on packing. Emily's mom Debbie came by yesterday and brought her packing guru skills and a massive rental car. We brought four loads of furniture and I'm not sure what else to our local thrift store. I don't know why they left it all outside, but all of it piled out there on asphalt was a bit depressing. Especially when it started pouring later that night.

Luckily we know that at least some of our stuff found a good home before the rain came. Max went back to shoot the lot full of our crap,and ran into a nice couple who live out of doors liberating our possessions from what would have been a watery grave. We hope they and the stuff they rescued stayed dry last night.

Our plan is this - pack for the next two days. Get a rental truck and pack it up Wednesday. Drive up to Max's mom's house in New Jersey on Thursday. Unload. Hang out and relax. Friday - drive 12 hours to Chicago and stay with Max's sister. Totally doable, right?

We'll see...

By the way, if you live in the Baltimore area and want to cancel your Verizon service, the direct number to a real person who can do that for you is (410)594-8493. Live outside the Baltimore area? While on hold with the main number, take a separate phone, (so you can still listen to that sweet hold music) and call all the local numbers you can find for your provider and eventually someone will take pity on you and give you the secret number. It is not listed. That's how you find it.