The End is Near...

...well, at least the end of the semester is near. Today is the last day of my classes. I still have about 70 papers and final exams to grade, but that won't require any last-minute lecture preparations. I am teaching one more course at Georgia State before we move--a three-week course in social psychology that meets every day for 2.5 hours starting May 14.

The picture here was taken yesterday during a short trip to Zoo Atlanta, which was a nice break from the usual routine. It came about because this semester an undergraduate student from Spelman College worked in my lab. Yesterday she presented her research at a poster session sponsored by the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience in the conference center at the zoo. Because I happened to be taking care of Will, I took him with me so that we could spend a little time seeing the animals. Unfortunately nearly everything was closing down by the time we arrived. The goats at the petting zoo were just going in for dinner, but Will got a chance to grab at their fur for a few minutes while a zookeeper snapped this photo. One of my friends from work, Tricia, and her daughter, Jamie, joined us a little later, and Will was much more interested in watching Jamie running around than looking at the lions, elephants, or monkeys.

We took care of another important requirement for our move this week--we booked the date when the shippers will come to get our stuff for May 16-17. That means that we will have nearly nothing in our Atlanta home for about 5 weeks, except the things that we taking in our suitcases or that we intend to sell. It's supposed to take about two months for our things to get to Brisbane. I can imagine that we will be very happy to see our things when they arrive in late July. And, by the way, still no offers on our house, although we have had about 4-5 viewings a week.

As V. described it yesterday, the whole move has taken on a surreal feeling. We are still pretty much going through our daily routine, seeing all the people we normally see, driving through the familiar neighborhoods, and shopping at our regular places. It's hard to believe that in about two weeks the first of the major disruptions will take place. In fact, soon I won't even be sitting at this computer (the desktop Mac in my wonderful upstairs office) writing these blog entries, with Sammy snoozing next to me as the morning sunlight comes through the window.