9 posts tagged “moving”

Its been quite awhile since the last time I posted a blog, something that's weighed heavily on my mind probably since the last time I actually posted. I haven't forgotten you, my Dear, Dear Vox, or you, my readers, I've just been dealing with life and didn't really have the capacity or frame of mind to write about it. Don't feel too neglected, because I wasn't even capable of journalling in the past 2 months. Oh sure, I've carried my little travelling journal book with me everywhere, I've taken it out, looked at it, wished for the sense of mind to actually put pen to paper and write, but there was nothing. Too much was going on in my personal and work life. It was all swirling around and around in my head, and the solution was to get it out, on paper or on a computer screen, but I couldn't do either. Instead, I dealt by putting my head down, plowing forward, trying to keep it all together when I was coming apart at the seams.

The past few months have been incredibly busy, and incredibly difficult. June marked a year since I moved to DC, and while I thought I was going to remain stationary and continue living where I had been, I realized unexpectedly - in the eleventh hour - that for my own peace of mind and sanity, I had to get out. I ended realizing with about 10 days to spare that I needed to get out, find a new place to live that was within my price range, and somehow move all of my belongings into that space. It was frantic, stressful, overwhelming, and most of all, crippling. Among other things that were going on personally, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. It sparked a whole chain of negative self-exploration, and I started focusing on all of my flaws, all of my weaknesses, and defining myself by them, completely forgetting all of the positives. I felt like a child again, like I couldn't make it through the day without my mommy, and tears were more than a daily occurrence, they were an hourly visitor. Anxiety and sleeplessness were constant companions, and I couldn't even count on my cat for some feline love because my stress was affecting almost as drastically as it was affecting me.

June also brought about the memories of all that I had learned in the past year - the hard life lessons, the friendships earned and lost, the things surrounding the death of friendship and birth of new ones; job changes, worklife drama, personal exhaustion. But also all of the amazing things that I've learned in the past year, all of the wonderful adventures I've had and the many, many blessings that have come my way. I'm certainly not the same person who packed her life in Michigan and moved back to the east coast, brand new Master's degree in hand. I don';t think I want to be that person anymore. Change is good, and I've learned so much - I feel like I've changed so much, and in some ways, I feel like I haven't changed one bit. Its been an interesting time. But I'm in a new home - but an old house - which I love, despite all of its problems. Its been wonderful living alone again and having the peace of mind that comes with it, but its also a little nerve-wracking until you get used to it. I'm looking forward to fully unpacking and getting used to it.

I've had a lot things going on in my head that I wanted to post, but I haven't prioritized the time, or retained what exactly it was that I wanted to post. Its been a turbulent time, but I'm looking forward to the waters calming a bit. I'm looking forward to getting back to posting and journaling and trying my had at the 5 word challenge again. I just wanted to say "Hello Vox, I hope you remember me," and let my returning presence be know. I hope all is well in the world of Vox and I look forward to catching up with all of my neighbors. :)

 

Life is good. That's all I have to say. No, I really have more than that to say, but Life sure is good. Today I received two job offers. Yes, that's right, TWO job offers. So I won't be unemployed for very much longer... YAY! I just need to weigh my options out, make lists of the pros and cons of both positions, and figure out which one is best for me all around. I have to think about location (well not really, but one job is located in Georgetown, which is definite Bonus point-age), salary, benefits, and the overall benefits the job will have for my career. I'm so excited to have to be thinking about these things. I'm so excited period, because I have options. Options. What a wonderful word!

A few weeks ago, before I uprooted my life, I had such hope, but also such trepidation. There was that nagging little fear that I wasn't going to find a job. And I tried to keep a PMA (as my friend Nibras says, positive mental attitude), but it's so hard when so many things are out of your hands - and in other peoples'. I'm a control freak, so I really had a hard time leaving my fate in other people's hands. But I guess I just had enough faith to get me by, and now I have a choice.

Its so nice to know that I'll be working again. I certainly enjoyed the unemployed life, just bumming around, but there's the consequence of bills. How can I continue to pay them without a job? Now I don't have to worry. I'm going to be financially stabilized, and the first thing I'm going to be doing (well, second, because I already went out and bought myself celebratory shoes and a celebratory book) is getting a financial planner. Anybody have any recommendations on a good financial planner-type person?

The shoes I've been eyeing since May. They're Nine West (of course, feeding my addiction) and they're super cute - t-strap peep toe platform heels in a tortoise-shell patent color. They're a stacked platform in the front with these glorious 4 inch heels in the back. I can't wait to wear them to work - I do believe I'm going to wear them on my first day of whichever job I choose. :) I would post a link to them, but the Nine West site is being finicky right now. So the first time I saw them, they were $80. And I thought they were cute, but they weren't $80 cute. And then they were marked down to $50. Tolerable, but I was shortly going to be unemployed with a very tight budget to live on. And then Autumn alerted me the other day to the fact that they had been marked down to $30. Wunderbar!!! So once I found out that I had A job offer, I was like, "I'm going to buy the shoes". But then I found out that I had TWO job offers, and I was like, "I'm going to get the shoes AND the book." So I got the shoes, and thanks to CupCate's blogs about how wonderful Candy Girl was, I got interested. I picked it up when I was in Border's with Autumn the other day and read a few pages, and was instantly drawn in. But I didn't buy it because I was unemployed without any offers at that point. And I checked the local library near my mom's house, and the library doesn't have it. And I can't get a library card here yet because I don't have any mail verifying that I live at my address. Yet. I do have my lease though, so hopefully next week I can use that to get a library card. So anyway, I decided to splurge at the Barnes & Noble in the mall (yay Tyson's Corner!) and bought the book. I'm heading back to PA tomorrow to spend the holiday and the weekend with my family, and I'm taking the book with me. I'm pretty sure I'll have it done by Friday... hee hee. I have a tendency to not just read books, but devour them.

I'm pretty excited to be heading back to spend time with my family. I'm totally loving the fact that I can just pick up and do that these days. Its not like when I lived in Michigan (like it was that long ago) and I had to plan an entire day's drive or plunk down the plastic for a $250 plane ticket. Now I can just hop in my car and go 3 hours north. Woo hoo!!! And up until this morning I was feeling kinda disoriented about leaving. I've been feeling since I got here that I'm dreaming. My mom asked me last week after one of my interviews, how i felt, and my answer to her was, "I feel like I'm dreaming. I feel like I'm going to wake up and this all will have been a dream." And I felt weird about leaving because then the dream would end, and I really wouldn't be living in metro DC anymore. If I left, it really would have been a dream, and I would have just been visiting - even though I knew full well I would be coming back to my home - my home - down here, which I've already been paying rent on. Now that I have concrete offers for jobs, it feels less scary to leave, because I have something to come back to. And by something, I mean a definite job, because I have a place to stay, I have tons of friends down here, etc. But until that job was there, it didn't seem real. Now it seems real.

I wanted to post about my adventures yesterday, but this news sort of took precedence (sorry Sylvie and Jeffminder). But I did have a great day visiting my friends outside of Baltimore yesterday. And, of course, in true Madelyn-style, it was dramatic. (What? Me? Dramatic? never... lol). I had called in a prescription to my local CVS on Saturday morning, but didn't get back from hanging out downtown to pick it up before the pharmacy closed. I needed it on Sunday, so I went over right after they opened, around 10:15. I went it, got what I needed, took my pill and when I got back to my apt. I parked my car and headed right for the metro. I left the CVS stuff in the car and figured I would get it when I got home later that night. So I busted a move to the metro, got on the platform and had to wait 9 minutes for a train. So I'm waiting, hanging out, people-watching all the touristy-types that were there. The train is coming and it pulls in and parks for a few minutes and as I'm about to get on, I realize I'm wheezing a bit. And then I realize that I haven't taken my allergy pill, so I'm as good as dead. I'm pretty much allergic to everything, all the time, and I'm about to head to my friend's house, where they have a dog. I'm a dead man. So I have to go back to my apt. to take my pill. And as I'm slapping down my SmarTrip card to exit the metro station, I realize that I've just been charged $1.35 to stand on the platform for 10 minutes. Oh well...

So anyway, I finally get things taken care of and get to where my friend is going to pick me up. We had a great day hanging out, and it was SO nice to see her again. We ate homemade Indian food (yummy!), watched the 5 hour DVD of her wedding in India (which I was at) and watched Bollywood dance productions on YouTube. Then she took me to see the progress on the condo that she and her husband bought and is in the process of being built. That was fun, and then we went and picked her husband up from work and headed to Annapolis for dinner. We ate at Pusser's Landing and had awesome, awesome food and drinks. After dinner we walked around the Harbor, looked at all the people and their boats, and their little dogs (shmeagle! schmeagle!) and had Ice Cream at Storm Brothers (I tried something new - German Chocolate, and it was uber-fabulous).

I was rather disappointed though, because I only saw 5 midshipmen/women, and only one was male. And he was kinda dorky. Coming from a Navy family, I have a thing for Navy-men ;). That's ok though, gives me more reason to go back. Especially in the fall, hee hee.

I was going to blog about all of this last night, but I was so tired when I got home that I basically washed my face and collapsed into a deep sleep. ;)

So anyway, back to today - I've made it. I've really done it. What I've looked forward to for so long has finally come to fruition. Or as I said to my friend the other day who's been waiting two years for me to get my arse down here... "I have arrived."

Wow. I have so much to talk about, its going to take awhile to get it out, and probably two posts. Bear with me people... you're in for a wild ride.

So, after mooching off of my family for a little over a week (hey, being the baby definitely has its perks!), the movers finally dropped my stuff off at my mom's house. Then, with only a small amount of sorting (and a BIG thanks to my mom for letting me use her basement as my personal storage facility... for free!) we deposited what needed to go with me to my new place into a 14 foot uhaul and off we went. The actual move went rather well, save for the giant storm that knocked the power in my building out for over an hour and almost trapped my mom and her best friend in the elevator. But rain is good luck, right? Hee hee...

So without too much drama, (minus the power outage and intermittent downpours) we got everything into my apartment, and thankfully my roommate was at work all day so she couldn't see the havoc we were wreaking on her beautiful condo, lol. After getting everything as organized as it was going to be, it was time to return the uhaul. This is where it gets really good...

My mom's best friend had this little portable GPS unit - its made for cars, but you can use it walking and whatnot, and its not limited to one vehicle. So she brought it with her in my mom's car to help my very traffic-paranoid mother out in the 5-lane-traffic situations around the city. When we left to return the uhaul, I took my mom's car and my aunt drove the uhaul. We had to go 13 miles, in an estimated 16 minutes - according to Google Maps. My mom's friend suggested we use the GPS thing, and being as geeked as I am about techie gadgets, especially those that talk to me, I took her up on her offer. So I programmed in the address of where we needed to go and off we went. Well, at some point very early in the trip - we hadn't even made it out of my sub-division yet - the thing decided to stop talking to me, and it actually froze. Great. So while I'm driving my mother's vehicle, in traffic, I'm fidgeting with the gadget, trying to force it into submission. I was not so lucky with this finicky little gadget. I managed to get it to say one thing to me, and I thought I was ok, but then I wasn't. So I fidgeted some more, and missed the exit I needed. The little machine realized this too and started talking again. For a second. So it tells me its recalculating my route - and thankfully not saying "make a u-turn" 800 times. It recalculates and tells me that I need to exit in 6 miles. So I drive, and drive, and drive, and check the machine and the damn thing went mute again AND I had missed my second exit. At this point, we're getting really close to getting into downtown DC in rush-hour traffic. Perfect. And then I get this fabulous little message from the machine - "No route to destination." Excuse me? You're linked to a satellite and you're supposed to have the answers! No route to destination? I DON'T THINK SO!

Now I'm getting really freaked out. I'm driving my mom's car, which is substantially larger than my own, and my aunt is piggybacking me in a 14 foot uhaul. So I take an exit which I'm pretty sure will lead us to where I can get us turned around. Nice try, Madelyn. We end up circling the Pentagon. And then I get flustered and really start to lose my head. So I take another exit, and I'm on the brink of tears when I realize, we're about to head into downtown DC, the epicenter of heavy traffic at rush hour. So I'm creeping along in traffic, and I realize that this little GPS gadget is still in my lap, so I start clicking on it and pushing the screen buttons and finally manage to reprogram it to the destination address. And it begins to work! Alleluia! EXCEPT...

It is now guiding me into the downtown traffic. Yep. And it gets EVEN richer... I'm three lanes to the left of where I need to be to get where the machine is telling me to go. So I put my blinker on and try to get over. I manage to weasel my way over successfully, but I can't say the same for my aunt in the 14 foot uhaul. I get onto the exit ramp, in which all three lanes are blessedly empty, and I slow to a crawl as I look in my rearview mirror to find the uhaul. You can't even imagine the million emotions that ran through me as I took in the scene behind me. My aunt was trapped two lanes away from where she needed to be, and no one was letting her over, so she just stopped. Stopped dead in one of the middle lanes. There was a loooooong line of traffic building up behind her, and there were cars that kept pulling around her, which obviously prohibited her from pulling across to the exit. So she FINALLY just goes for it because she's clearly bigger than all of the other cars in traffic, and catches up to me. I'm near tears at this point (sadly, NOT with laughter, and I call her cell phone to let her know the wonderful news that we're heading into downtown DC. I'm practically having a nervous breakdown because I'm so worried about my aunt, but luckily she's the calmest member of my family, and took it cool as a cucumber. So there we were, a midsize SUV and a 14 foot uhaul, rolling down Constitution Ave in afternoon rush hour traffic. It took us 20 minutes to make it one mile, through all of the lights, and back onto the highway where the GPS-lady was telling us to go. We spent the time calling each other to talk about the monuments and landmarks we were passing, reminiscing about how long it had been since we last played tourist in DC (I won't say how long ago it was, we'll just say that it was a while ago). We could even clearly see the White House, set back to the right. And we had a wonderful up-close-and-personal view of the Washington Monument. It was glorious. Absolutely glorious.

And you'd think that that was the end of it, right? Nope, not with my family :) We get onto the highway, we're going along well, following directions, GPS lady is working well, I think we're set. We're driving, see the uhaul return place on the other side of the highway, follow the lady's directions to make a u-turn (well, the u-turn was technically illegal so we pulled into a driveway and circled and then went back out onto the highway). We go to pull off of the road to get to the uhaul place, but I misjudged where it was, though that I could shortcut it, and pulled onto the wrong road. This "road" was actually the entrance to a car dealership, so we had to drive down the aisles of cars to turn around. In a midsized SUV and a 14 foot uhaul. I think my aunt actually pulled a three point turn, adding just a bit more icing to the insanity cake.

So then we get back out onto the highway, and make the correct right turn into the uhaul return place. I find a parking spot, my aunt rolls in in the uhaul and makes her own parking spot, because hey, she's driving a 14 foot uhaul, hahahaha! And SUCCESS!!! We finally rid ourselves of the uhaul and made it back to my apartment with no trouble at all. Thanks to me and NOT the GPS lady.

My family then decided they should probably get back on the road and get on their way back to PA. And Autumn came over with some cheap Meijer champagne that she bought on sale before she moved out of Michigan last year. We never actually did get to drink it, but we did go out for a nice dinner of Mexican food and checked out the (very expensive) local Safeway to get some necessities. And then I drove Autumn back to her place without any GPS help at all, because contrary to what this post implies, I actually do know my way around the District and surrounding areas fairly well. When I'm not panicking.

This, ladies and gentlemen, concludes Part 1 of holy. scheisse.

What a tumultuous few days it has been. Packing up my home, watching some burly men carrying all of my belongings out of my apartment and watching them pack it all into an 18-wheeler with the promise of seeing it again in seven to ten days. Leaving the life I’ve known for the past two years, just as I was really starting to get comfortable. Ok, so the comfort didn’t really happen until AFTER commencement, but still. It’s the only life I’ve known for two whole years.

Its amazing, the journey I’ve had in Michigan. It all began almost two years ago to the day. My mom and I hopped a plane, rented a car and checked out what was to be my new life. I was terrified. I was already feeling as if I made the wrong decision. It all just seemed so unmanageable. But I made it. And not only did I make it, but I made it with flying colors. For so long, I fought against Michigan. I didn’t want to let it in, this state with an identity crisis (too Midwest to be anything but, but not Midwest enough to be claimed so by other Midwestern states). From the very start, Michigan and Madelyn did not get on well. There were those crazy drivers (I got run off the road three times within the first few months – thank goodness the engineers of 94 made the shoulder the size of an extra lane!), the ghetto neighborhood I had unwittingly moved into (my wonderfully dubbed apartment complex, Lake in the Hood), and the ridiculously short yet time-staking commute I had to school every morning (12 whole miles in 45 minutes!). It wasn’t as if I had a full time job to pay for all of the gas money I was spending. Nope, just a lowly part time job. I was a full-time grad student, for goodness sakes!

But it seems as though throughout it all, and especially towards the end, I let my guard down. I let it down without realizing it, and Michigan finally made its way in. Maybe it was the great summer I had in 2006. Maybe it was the beautiful new apartment I moved into in last July, or maybe it was just the salsa dancing. I’ll never know just what it was, and when exactly it happened, but I let Michigan in. And in doing so, let it take a bigger chunk of my heart than I realized was possible. Now, don’t confuse my nostalgia for longing. I’m certainly happy to be moving back to the east coast, where I feel I’m better suited to fit in. But I’m definitely sad to be leaving the friends I made, the places I enjoyed going (my favorite of them all being Sangria’s Sky Club for Wednesday night Salsa in Royal Oak), and most importantly, the experiences I gained through everything that I’ve done in the past two years.

Yes, I know I will keep in touch with the friends. And yes, I know I can carry the experiences with me, but I don’t know when I’ll get back to Michigan. I thought about a lot of things during the eight hour drive home. One of them was the fact that Michigan is the first place I’ve lived that I’ve had no prior connection to – no family, no close friends, no nothing. It’s not somewhere that I have to pass on my way to other places (like my alma mater Penn State). I don’t really have anyone there to visit because all of my friends are slowly but surely trickling out of the state to jobs in a better economy. I don’t know when I’ll make it back. Which makes me sad in a way that I never thought I would be when I finally left Michigan. I’m sorry Scotch, but I have to say it, I’m going to miss Michigan.

And with that final phrase I will leave you, because I fear that if I continue on, I will only embarrass myself more ;)

It came today... my new bag. My new, perfectly sized, very structured and extremely functional new bag. :p

I was so excited! I was anticipating it all day... I had so many errands to run this morning, and I saw the UPS truck going all around the neighborhood. Every time I went out, I plastered a sign to the door. I'm pretty sure my neighbors think I'm crazy... or neurotic at the very least, which is pretty true, lol. But the UPS man never made it to my building until after 5pm! I was going bananas! Especially since tomorrow I'm going to be out all day, so there wouldn't be anyone here to sign for it. Woo hoo! I know this sounds crazy, but I feel like I'm going to be more efficient getting things done in my remaining 4 days here because I have a more structured and organized bag. It really makes a huge difference. And this thing is made of seatbelts (don't you wish the seatbelts in your car came in that color, hee hee?) so it's uber-durable. Yay! I'm sure that this is an investment that will be more than worthwhile. I'm going to be using this thing when I'm 90. I only have ONE other bag like that :) Hey, at least with this new bag there's something organized in my life right now. I've turned into an insomniac. I've known for a very long time that the state of my environment has a profound effect on me. Well, this chaotic purgatorial state that my apartment is currently in is driving me bonkers. I just haven't been able to relax with all the stuff and boxes and trash and things to take to goodwill. And every time I sit down to take a break, I think of 5 more things that need to be done. It's like there's a ticker-tape running through my brain, lol. But in spite of it all, I've made amazing headway. The movers are coming on Friday morning and I'm already 85% packed, but its always the last odds and ends that are the hardest. Plus, I don't know when exactly the moving company will be dropping my stuff off at its destination - they gave me a 13 day window - so trying to figure out what to take with me in my car hasn't exactly been easy. And let's not forget that my stuff is going to two different locations, which also puts a giant kink into the packing game. Since I currently live by myself and have furnished my apartment, I have A LOT of stuff. However, I'll be moving into an apartment with a roommate, who also has a lot of stuff, so half of my stuff is going to storage at my mom's house and half is going with me to the new apartment. Yes, yes packing has been fun.

Actually, I know that sounds like its laced with sarcasm, but it really isn't. I'm rather enjoying the packing. Well, as much as one can enjoy packing. But its so nice to know that once I get it all boxed and ready, I'm done with it. Other people are going to be carrying it, and hauling it down the stairwell, loading it into the truck, unloading it from the truck. All I have to do is sit there with a clipboard and inventory the boxes to make sure that everything made it from point A to point B. I can deal with that :) I just have to get to Friday. I'm hoping to be finished by tomorrow evening, but I'm going salsa dancing to the regular Wednesday night hotspot, so I may not finish until Thursday morning. Which is fine. I just don't want to be stressing and having to pull an all-nighter on Thursday night to finish up. But really, its just the random odds and ends that I really need to worry about. And making sure everything I've decided to take in the car with me actually fits in my car. That will be my task for Thursday evening :) Anyway, sorry to bore you all AGAIN with the packing stories. It won't be long now before I'll be done talking about it and I'll be blogging about settling into my new place... YAY! And JOBS! I've got some interviews lined up, one big one that won't be for at least 3 weeks, and a couple temp library positions to help pay the bills until I find the day job. Yay! I'm literally smiling from ear to ear. Cheers all! Au revoir!

p.s. Buy my beautiful Nine West bag!!! ;)

Chaos is reigning in my humble abode. I have purged and packed and sorted and have gotten about 1/3 of my apartment ready for the movers, who are coming in t-minus 6 days and counting. My cozy home is looking less and less cozy and more and more empty. I'm sad to be leaving, because I really adored this apartment, but its time to move on. Besides, my new place is even more amazing, with hardwood floors (yay for my allergies!), huge open spaces, a minute's walk to the metro, and best of all a washer and dryer... I never have to haul my laundry somewhere and scrounge for quarters again! (well, never say never, but you get the point...) Yay!!!

Its been a long time since I last posted, so even though nothing entirely interesting has happened, I felt like I should post. I just bought a new bag online... not because I have the money or anything, but I definitely was NOT happy with the Nine West Bag I bought just a few months ago. And this new bag is beautiful, roomy, functional, and it was negative $5 overnight shipping. Yep, sounds crazy, but Endless.com knocks $5 dollars off the price of what you buy, and dubs it -$5 shipping. So anyway, I fell in love with the Nine West bag, I'm sure all of you remember the story about how I found it. But loving it on the rack, and actually owning and using it are two different things. I found myself using my teeny old Coach bag instead of my roomy new bag. The Nine West bag is beautiful, roomy, fabulous and absolutely gorgeous, but for how much I'm in and out of my bag, it was sort of unwieldy. I'm constantly in and out, checking my phone, grabbing my chap stick, looking for a pen. It was a hard decision, but I've posted it on ebay, so if you're interested in a basically brand new bag in perfect condition at a GREAT price, bid away, baby, bid away. You can't even tell that I've used it because I was so anal about taking care of it - and because I used it so infrequently. I'm just trying to purge the excess stuff from my life, and also compensate for an exorbitant and really unnecessary purchase of a new bag.

So anyway, in my quest to purge the excess from my life, I've been going through EVERYTHING and assessing its worth to me. I've managed to get rid of two pieces of furniture (a rather large bookshelf and a chest of drawers), 5 bags of clothing, and another bag of shoes and some other odds and ends that are all going to goodwill. I definitely feel much better knowing that I'm getting rid of stuff and helping others, but I still haven't been able to haul the stuff out of my apartment yet. I used to be better at purging my life of the unnecessary before I came back to grad school - I used to "feng shui" my life and my closets on a bi-weekly basis - so what better way to celebrate being done and moving and starting over than purging again? Plus, I don't want to be moving anything that I don't need. I'm so excited though. Because of being in college, and then taking time off and going back to school, the way things have worked out, I've been in 5 apartments in 5 years. So I've gotten rather good at moving, but I usually move my own stuff. I've never really completely packed an apartment because I can just chuck odds and ends into the truck once the big stuff is packed. But this time, I've hired people to move me. Thankfully. I can't do it again. Not with the furniture that I currently have and the stairwell I have to navigate to get the stuff out. It was hell bringing it in last year, and I just can't do it again. So I have movers coming, which is fabulous, pretty economical - crazily enough, hiring people is only a few hundred dollars more than just the rental of a truck, not including the gas. So I will gladly fork over the extra 3 or 4 hundred. I've got money saved up, so it will be fine. But anyway, I digress. I actually have to pack *everything*. Even the microwave needs to be boxed! So I was extra inspired to get rid of stuff - not just because I'm moving, but because other people are moving me. Its wonderful.

I do apologize... I've been extolling on the fabulousness of movers and moving for far too long. I'll stop babbling, and its about time I crawl into bed and get some rest. Sweet dreams all ;)

p.s. Buy my beautiful Nine West bag!!! ;)

I've been so wrapped up in the elation of being done with grad school, and enjoying my free time that I forgot it was all coming to an end. Not the being done part, or the free time, but the time spent with people you've grown close to - a strong bond formed because you're all sharing in the same chaotic environment and events. You've all gone through the struggles together, you're compadres, partners in crime. And now we're all going our separate ways. It hasn't been entirely difficult thus far, but all of the people who I've said goodbye to have pretty much been peripheral people. They haven't been the shining starts in my sky, but its still been hard.

I said goodbye to one shining star awhile ago, but it was only temporary. She'll be back in my local sky very soon. However, I said goodbye to another one on Sunday night. I'll still be able to see her without much trouble down the line because she's taken a job in a huge city very near where I grew up. But the hardest one is coming this evening. The best friend I've made in graduate school... she's leaving Ann Arbor on Friday and will shortly be making her way across the country to LA, to her dream job, in the place she always wanted to settle. But I'll be saying goodbye to her tonight, because I'll be leaving to head east to spend some time with my family and prep for my own move. While I know she's only a phone call/e-mail away, it doesn't make it any easier. I know I won't be seeing her frequently, going salsa dancing with her twice a week, or having our traditional sushi gorges together. Not until I fly across the country to see her, or she does the same with me. I'm so happy for her, but at the same time, I'm sad because its the end of an era. The end of one chapter, but the beginning of another. I know I'm sounding cliche, but sometimes being cliche helps ease you through situations like these... makes it slightly more amusing.

You go into this experience (of grad school) knowing its only temporary. But you form these amazing strong bonds, thinking you'll get through it together. And you do. But then you have to say goodbye. Its never easy...

I think I'm also starting to freak out because I'll be leaving my cat, my roommate, with my mom for awhile. It will be too stressful for her to take two 8 hour car trips, and then have to deal with boxes being packed and moving people. So I have the prospect of 3 weeks alone in my apartment, without her. I live by myself, which I love, but I've never truly felt alone with her around. Its going to be a little weird. And I was definitely emotional last night thinking about saying goodbye, and kitty vacations, as I was packing my stuff and packing the cat's stuff to go to my mom's house. Its an emotional time, and I'm on overload.

But there is one last salsa dancing excursion tonight, which will definitely help my mood.

Song of the Day: DJ Sasha - Xpander Edit

It is SO nice to just enjoy weekends. I feel like I have my life back in so many ways. I don't have to worry about homework, due dates, papers, or assignments of any kind! Its fabulous! And I've read so many books already!

This weekend I just enjoyed the nice weather, hung out with some friends, and just relaxed. It was fabulous. I Bollywood-ed myself out on Friday night (two movies, one I've seen and adore - Krrish with the oh-so-gorgeous Hrithik - and one that I <gasp!> hadn't seen - Bride and Prejudice - and I have to say, I was a little creeped out by Aishwarya speaking English... woah!), which was beyond fabulous, and definitely long-overdue. I even rendezvoused with Jane Austen, AND finished the book off . I'm slipping back into my "English major" ways, and I love it. I don't care how much of a nerd it makes me ;)

Last night a friend of mine had a farewell bonfire at her parent's house an hour north of A2, so I went and hung out. It was a cool night, in the high 40s, so it was perfect bonfire weather. It was nice to just chill out, doing something that you don't normally get to do. And we all had multiple s'morgasms, so it was even better ;) You can't have a bonfire without s'mores!

I'll be moving shortly... a little bit delayed from my original plans, but I'm looking forward to that. It will be nice to have a change of scenery and start fresh. And although moving is rather stressful in a lot of ways, I'm kinda looking forward to it. I've been in 5 apartments in the past 5 years (not because I'm a bad tenant or anything - its just the way situations worked out) so I'm pretty much a pro at moving. And I'm looking forward to the huge purge that will come with moving. I love the feeling of getting rid of unnecessary, extraneous stuff and creating more space. I’m plagued by clutter, but I HATE it. I love to "Feng Shui" my life and create a non-cluttered sacred space. Moving gives you a whole new opportunity to reorganize :)

I’m also looking forward to visiting my family later this week. I know I just saw them at graduation, but we’re very close, and I miss them. We’re also a little bonkers – we put the “fun” in dysfunctional, hee hee. I also haven’t been home in awhile, and I haven’t been home without assignments hanging over my head in a really long time. So it will be nice to just chill out and actually spend quality time with my family:)

Ok, I’m going to stop with the dork parade… ciao for now!

To go with my Bollywood-Binge - Song of the Day: Dil Na Diya

I find it ironic that I've been waiting for so long to be done with grad school, finish everything up so that I can move on with my life, and now that that time has come, I'm completely terrified. Maybe its just because I'm moving to a new place - one that's not entirely foreign I should add, but not where I expected, that's for sure. I have a great roommate, and a wonderful living situation for myself and the Neeners, but I still don't have a concrete form of income. I guess that's what scares me the most. Not having a job yet. Haven't I paid my dues? Haven't I just spent a huge amount on my education? An amount, I might add, that would cover the costs of building a new house. I'm sure i'll find something, but I'm feeling stagnant again. Which is pretty much how I felt before I went back to grad school. I knew what I wanted to do, had been, in fact, doing it, but couldn't make any more than I was making because I didn't have the all-important Master's degree. And I'm feeling like I'm going to be stagnating, or spinning my wheels for awhile until I find something that makes me happy. I think I'm just freaking out a little because so many of my classmates have secured jobs already.

I know I'm not one of those people that's going to get a job now and stay at the same spot for the next 30 years. I'm a mover and a shaker, and I know I'll be moving and shaking all around the place, but its just a slightly scary place to be at. And the more i think about it, the more panicked I get, and the less direction I have. Its such a weird phenomenon.

On another note, I did get a phone call yesterday from a company in Grand Rapids, a tech company, that found my resume while cruising our career services page and called me about signing on for a project because of my Ruby on Rails skills... its looks like the horror and pain of last semester may actually have a bigger pay off than I thought was possible ;) Go figure, little miss librarian/archivist, would rather hang out in the conservation lab in the basement of the Bentley might be a candidate for a tech job... it makes me giggle, lol.

Well, at least I have salsa dancing to look forward to tonight. That will help clear my mind a little... I like to dance things out :)

Song of the day: Me Libere - El Gran Combo