Prepare To Make The Jump To Hyperspace!

It all seems so matter-of-fact when Han Solo says it, but how does one really prepare to make the jump to light speed? For that matter, how does one really prepare to move in with their girlfriend or boyfriend? I will suggest that cohabitation is a much trickier navigation than making the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. Forgetting for a moment that parsec is a measurement of distance and not time, imagine how much more difficult it would be for our old buddy Han to find a spot to stow all of Princess Leia's things in the Millennium Falcon. In those storage compartments under the floor? Sorry. I'm pretty sure she didn't want to move all her stuff across the galaxy just to shove it down in a hole where some Wookie has just been hiding. And so it goes.
I have a friend who is on the horns of this very dilemma. If he were captain of a starship, it wouldn't be any more difficult. His biggest concern currently: Where to put all of her books? I get that completely. My wife and I have stuffed bookcases in every room in our house to the point where the shelves have begun to bow. Some of the books are hers. Some of them are mine. And they are all ours. Even the ones that we have sadly boxed up and stored in our basement are all part of our collective library. When we do let one go, to a friend or a garage sale, it's only after consultation with one another. It's all part of the negotiation, part of the dance.
But there is one book that we would never let go. It's a trivia encyclopedia I got for my high school graduation. Most of the information has been internalized by me, or become outdated in the thirty years since, but my wife and I cling to it for one reason: It has a comprehensive list of the traditional gifts one gives another on specific anniversaries. That's how I got my cashmere jacket for our seventh-wool year together. I wrote her a script on our paper anniversary. And every year, about the same time, we both go looking for that book. Even though we both know where we could find the answer on Al Gore's Internet, we still cling to that book. It's how we prepare to jump to the speed of light.