a cement hole with indoor yelling

Moving day is bad for everyone. Moving day with full-stop traffic in 90 degree car with no air conditioning is worse. After enough moving days, you become prepared for it all. The tribulations come less as a shock.

What I was not ready for were Pennsylvanians on the interstate. In New York, if you are standing at the Metrocard machine and your debit card just won't swipe, and you turn around and look whoever it is behind you -- the first person in the traffic jam you've caused-- in the face and give an earnest "I'm sorry," they will give you a nod back and say "it's ok." If you put your flashers on in Pennsylvania, however, or linger in the left lane, they'll flip you the bird, man. They will. It's rather shocking.

It is my fault, of course, that I packed so haphazardly as to allow for a jar of minced garlic to spill all over some box in the backseat. It is my fault that, while driving, I decided to stick my hand back there and try to figure out where it was, which of course led me to find it and then freak. out. when I pulled my hand back and it was covered in garlicy goo, and which of course was the reason that I slowed down in the left lane to a creepy 40, and swerved a bit, too. I know, I am ashamed.

The lessons to be taken away from this are many, including the food-related thing that it's important to take your time -- with cooking, with reading recipes, with sharing meals, with eating them. And when packing to leave a place, keep the minced garlic behind.