Leaving Berkeley

Five years ago this month, Dad and I loaded most of Scientist Genius Brother's belongings (Marvelous Mom points out that she is STILL storing some of his crap for him at her house) and drove him to Berkeley for grad school. In that five years he worked his ass off, finally earning the title 'Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry'.

On Thursday, Marvelous Mom and I drove down to Berkeley to do the whole move in reverse. It was a wonderful trip! We are all so proud of him that our buttons have burst off our clothing. His final thesis was signed off on by his professor and two other advisors and he is DONE! Check out his thesis title:

Ion Nanocalorimetry: Measuring Absolute Reduction Potentials, and Investigating Effects of Water on Electron Solvation and Ion Fluorescence

I've got no idea what it means but it sounds very smart!

For the most part the entire moving out process went smoothly. Except for one thing - Satan's Couch. This is a piece of furniture he got for free from some friends. They got hosed on it, paying $75 on Craigslist for a couch they were told was leather but was actually very cheap, squeaky, hot, icky vinyl. When they gave it to Scientist Genius Brother they were happy to see it go. I suspect they avoided even sitting on it when they visited him.

Now when he moved in to this apartment, he got Satan's Couch in through the front door. The apartment complex was built in 1914 so we know for SURE that it wasn't built around Satan's Couch. And yet he could not get it out.

Let me tell you, it is not easy to take non-blurry pictures with your iPhone while laughing hysterically! Four big, strong, college guys could not get Satan's Couch out of the apartment. They tried for half an hour, turning it every which way, taking the legs off, shoving it into the shrubbery, even sacrificing the paint on the door, but could NOT get it out. Even funnier is that Scientist Genius Brother doesn't remember it being that hard to get in - he wasn't even sure who helped him move it!

But by that night he was pissed. He was gonna get that damn thing out no matter what. So we broke out the tools...

...and we cut it in half. We murdered Satan's Couch. Then he had to pay a guy $65 to come and haul it out which was extremely painful to the second-cheapest person I know. (Husband is the first.) Not really a freebie. But once it was gone the aura of the apartment lifted and we knew we were no longer in the presence of Satan's Couch.

Then with much prodding from Mom and I, Scientist Genius Brother got rid of a LOT of stuff he wouldn't need or didn't want to pay to ship to Australia. The remainder of his crap got crammed in the back of my van (you would not believe how much stuff you can get in a Honda Odyssey!!!) and we brought him home.

He will stay with Marvelous Mom until Friday and then he heads to the University of Melbourne to do his post-doctoral work on the molecular and physical composition of the atoms of zzzzz....he's gonna do chemistry stuff. He also gets to join Awesome Aussie Girlfriend and they won't have to do the long-distance thing anymore!!!

I am proud and sad and excited for him all at the same time. He is the best brother, son, and uncle anyone could wish for and he will do amazing things with his life!