Optimism

As I fit my world into boxes that seem too small and too few to contain something so significant, I also fold my life up into a tight accordion of tasks. My days are strangled by working-packing-cleaning-cleaning the car-change of address forms-setting up utilities-restless sleep-placing an ad in the paper, then taking the dryer we're selling apart, only to find that its parts are all intact after all, and when I thought they weren't, well, I guess that was just the crack talking. And then there were the nine hours of near-stasis while I drove to and from a twenty-minute interview for a job I am in no way assured of getting. But hope wins, as always, because even though I can barely breathe to begin with, I held my breath through both of the tunnels on the highway this afternoon, wishing for this job to be mine and be perfect, and for our new life in that city to fulfill all the promises drawing us toward it.