Three pleasant conversions, all of which took place today as part of my impending conversion from a bourgeois resident of the Upper West Side to a slightly less bourgeois Brooklynite:

1. The conversion of two pounds of loose change into thirty dollars, accomplished through the miracle of CoinStar.

2. The conversion of an unassembled IKEA chest with five drawers and a rather wobbly IKEA sideboard into one hundred dollars, accomplished through the miracle of Craigslist. (The lapse between my posting the ad and selling the furniture was slightly under an hour.)

3. The conversion, indeed, transmogrification of a suitcase full of crappy books into a pleasingly compact three-volume edition of Proust, accomplished at the nice little used bookstore on 81st Street and Broadway.

Quid pro quo, a simple exchange, and everybody leaves happy. Why can't my love life be more like this?