I packed the very first box today. I packed my husband's clothes from our dresser and a few of his things from the closet.
It all has become so much more real all of a sudden. I'm leaving. Not just moving, but moving moving. I am leaving the only place I have ever lived.
Sure, I've lived in different cities in the U.S., but I have never lived in another country, never been more than a 6-hour drive away from all of the people that mean the most to me.
I'm moving.
Is it bad that I am still excited?
28 February 2006
24 February 2006
Make A Wish
I woke up to the phone ringing this morning, my Mom calling to wish me a Happy Birthday. Always a good way to start off the day.
The day has only gotten better and better.
I spent most of the day with Emy, buying Stampin' Up stamps and accessories so that I can start making some handmade cards. It's something I think about all the time. Something that, if I had the time, I'd really make a go of as a side business. I spent way too much money and had bad (read bad for me, but very yummy) food for lunch and had a blast. I also talked Emy into making me a pair of socks, so I spent part of the evening looking up sock patterns on The Knitting Zone, where I found multiple scarf patterns that I want to buy so that I can use some of the unbelievably beautiful yarn that my Secret Pal gave me for my birthday. That woman is an angel!
Beautiful skeins of yarn (Claudia's Handpainted, Delicious Yarn among them), discs 2 & 3 of Invader Zim (I'm obsessed!), gorgeous roses, generous gift cards from iTunes, phone calls from my sister, my mom, my best friend, a great friend that I met through work (we're like twins separated at birth), and a husband who is somewhere at sea(but still managed to call), a touching card from one of my oldest friends, good food, great company and smokey scotch.
It's been a very good day.
The day has only gotten better and better.
I spent most of the day with Emy, buying Stampin' Up stamps and accessories so that I can start making some handmade cards. It's something I think about all the time. Something that, if I had the time, I'd really make a go of as a side business. I spent way too much money and had bad (read bad for me, but very yummy) food for lunch and had a blast. I also talked Emy into making me a pair of socks, so I spent part of the evening looking up sock patterns on The Knitting Zone, where I found multiple scarf patterns that I want to buy so that I can use some of the unbelievably beautiful yarn that my Secret Pal gave me for my birthday. That woman is an angel!
Beautiful skeins of yarn (Claudia's Handpainted, Delicious Yarn among them), discs 2 & 3 of Invader Zim (I'm obsessed!), gorgeous roses, generous gift cards from iTunes, phone calls from my sister, my mom, my best friend, a great friend that I met through work (we're like twins separated at birth), and a husband who is somewhere at sea(but still managed to call), a touching card from one of my oldest friends, good food, great company and smokey scotch.
It's been a very good day.
22 February 2006
Birthday Presents
It's my birthday on Thursday. It's not a big birthday, you know, not one that ends in an 0 or anything, but my birthday nonetheless. I'm excited because my present from my Secret Pal showed up today. I want to open it so badly. I am trying to be good and to wait the two days, but I just don't know if I'll be able to restrain myself.
I need to go to sleep so I can get up, struggle through the day, go to sleep, get up and open my presents!
I need to go to sleep so I can get up, struggle through the day, go to sleep, get up and open my presents!
21 February 2006
Manchester England, England
I was going to blog about Stitches West tonight, about all of the goodies I got while I was there. I was going to find pictures of some of the things that I purchased and post them along with my thoughts on Stitches. I was going to do all of that.
Then I remembered that today was Monday. Monday, the 20th of February, in the year two-thousand, double-aught, six.
I know what you're thinking: so what? What the frick is so special about the 20th? What on earth could be so special about a Monday?!
Today is the day that we exchanged contracts for the house that we purchased in ENGLAND!!
My sister-in-law was there to sign the papers and pick up the keys in our stead, but now I wish that I had taken the week off, hopped a flight to England and signed the papers and picked up the keys myself. Still, I can't stop grinning and I can't stop thinking about the fact that I am now a homeowner. A homeowner... Yow!
I'm congested, I'm coughing and sneezing and I can barely stay awake. I am behind on my knitting and I am gravely in danger of not medaling in the Knitting Olympics and I coouldn't care less.
It has been a very good day.
Then I remembered that today was Monday. Monday, the 20th of February, in the year two-thousand, double-aught, six.
I know what you're thinking: so what? What the frick is so special about the 20th? What on earth could be so special about a Monday?!
Today is the day that we exchanged contracts for the house that we purchased in ENGLAND!!
My sister-in-law was there to sign the papers and pick up the keys in our stead, but now I wish that I had taken the week off, hopped a flight to England and signed the papers and picked up the keys myself. Still, I can't stop grinning and I can't stop thinking about the fact that I am now a homeowner. A homeowner... Yow!
I'm congested, I'm coughing and sneezing and I can barely stay awake. I am behind on my knitting and I am gravely in danger of not medaling in the Knitting Olympics and I coouldn't care less.
It has been a very good day.
16 February 2006
Resigned to My Fate
I quit my job on Monday.
Actually, I quit on Friday last, but I turned in my letter of resignation on Monday.
It felt wonderful.
I only have a couple of weeks left at the place where I've been employed for the last 6 years, 3 months and 14 days. In a mere 15 days, I will no longer be a cog in the wheel of the machine that is the Scarlet Letter. Perhaps it hasn't settled in yet. Perhaps I really am just overjoyed to no longer have to go to work there after the end of this month. I thought that I would feel more sadness, more remorse. All I feel is weight of a Sisyhean task being lifted from my shoulders - getting up day after day to push myself to do something I am no longer interested in doing for people who no longer inspire me to do the job I know I can do.
I want to do something more. Not, like, rich-and-famous, putting-my-business-in-the-streets more. Like, learning-something-new-everyday, engaging-my-brain, putting-something-out-into-the-Universe-that-means-something more.
You know... more.
Actually, I quit on Friday last, but I turned in my letter of resignation on Monday.
It felt wonderful.
I only have a couple of weeks left at the place where I've been employed for the last 6 years, 3 months and 14 days. In a mere 15 days, I will no longer be a cog in the wheel of the machine that is the Scarlet Letter. Perhaps it hasn't settled in yet. Perhaps I really am just overjoyed to no longer have to go to work there after the end of this month. I thought that I would feel more sadness, more remorse. All I feel is weight of a Sisyhean task being lifted from my shoulders - getting up day after day to push myself to do something I am no longer interested in doing for people who no longer inspire me to do the job I know I can do.
I want to do something more. Not, like, rich-and-famous, putting-my-business-in-the-streets more. Like, learning-something-new-everyday, engaging-my-brain, putting-something-out-into-the-Universe-that-means-something more.
You know... more.
07 February 2006
Pay It Backwards
People suck.
Today, on my way back to the office I ran into a guy who said that he was homeless and looking for a place to get a free breakfast. I didn't know of such any place downtown. I know of one place, the place where I sometimes volunteer, but it isn't downtown, it's further out, and I told him that. He tried to flag down some poor schmo on a bike, who just waved him off and kept riding, while I stood there still. His response: "This is a hard town to get help in."
I walked away.
Then I remembered that I had a Starbucks card in my back pocket. I turned around, walked back to him and offered him the card. I didn't have any money on me and I told him so. The card had, maybe, $15 on it - enough for a sandwich and a pastry and a coffee, if he wanted it. There was no way to get me the card back, so it was his to keep, spend, eat, poop on, whatever.
He accepted it. I experienced a fleeting moment of pride and happiness and then the Karma gods decided to smite me down for my hubris. It was instantaneous. Before I had taken six steps, the guy called me back, asking if he could tell me how he had gotten from his city to mine. Stupidly, I said,"OK." He then proceeded to tell me how his girlfriend was in a fire, and how she was 6-months pregnant with his kid and then he did it... he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to force out a couple of tears. When he couldn't manage to get one out, he tried wiping his eyes to make it look like he was crying, except, that he wasn't. I was looking right at him. It was the pathetic crocodile tears of a little kid who wants something that you won't give them. It pissed me the f!#% off.
Fine, pal! You scammed me out of the card. I didn't give you any money because I didn't have any money to give. I was trying to be nice!!
I said that I was sorry about his misfortune, that I hoped that things went better for him in the future.
I walked away.
When he called me back this time, I just kept walking.
Fucker.
Today, on my way back to the office I ran into a guy who said that he was homeless and looking for a place to get a free breakfast. I didn't know of such any place downtown. I know of one place, the place where I sometimes volunteer, but it isn't downtown, it's further out, and I told him that. He tried to flag down some poor schmo on a bike, who just waved him off and kept riding, while I stood there still. His response: "This is a hard town to get help in."
I walked away.
Then I remembered that I had a Starbucks card in my back pocket. I turned around, walked back to him and offered him the card. I didn't have any money on me and I told him so. The card had, maybe, $15 on it - enough for a sandwich and a pastry and a coffee, if he wanted it. There was no way to get me the card back, so it was his to keep, spend, eat, poop on, whatever.
He accepted it. I experienced a fleeting moment of pride and happiness and then the Karma gods decided to smite me down for my hubris. It was instantaneous. Before I had taken six steps, the guy called me back, asking if he could tell me how he had gotten from his city to mine. Stupidly, I said,"OK." He then proceeded to tell me how his girlfriend was in a fire, and how she was 6-months pregnant with his kid and then he did it... he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to force out a couple of tears. When he couldn't manage to get one out, he tried wiping his eyes to make it look like he was crying, except, that he wasn't. I was looking right at him. It was the pathetic crocodile tears of a little kid who wants something that you won't give them. It pissed me the f!#% off.
Fine, pal! You scammed me out of the card. I didn't give you any money because I didn't have any money to give. I was trying to be nice!!
I said that I was sorry about his misfortune, that I hoped that things went better for him in the future.
I walked away.
When he called me back this time, I just kept walking.
Fucker.
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