In case you're keeping score...

*I start my job at the Department of Mental Health on 2nd August.

*I will be in San Francisco at the RID conference from 3rd-9th August. I'm presenting with my former co-worker from Alabama, Brian McKenny. Here's hoping I can actually complete the workshop without falling down or knocking over something important...like the laptop with the powerpoint on it.

*I will have been in my new house for a month on Monday.

Thanks for all the well wishes and thoughts. I have done a lot more of this move solo than I ever have before, and it's been an experience. Now if we can just get the dishwasher and oven working, I can settle back and enjoy.

Life Lesson

Hunky and his Posse
Originally uploaded by NanLassiter.

When my life gets to be too much, Hunky is always there to remind me that the most important things in life are a soft couch, a squeaky dinosaur, and an oven mitt that has morphed into a giraffe toy. What would I do without his sage counsel? I shudder to think...

This is why I have dogs. This.Right.Here.

Stool Tool
Originally uploaded by NanLassiter.

Seriously, how could you not pick one of these up at the pet store with THAT kind of a catchy name??

One step forward, six hundred steps back

House? Check.
Fenced yard? Check.
Animals? Check.
Gorgeous cleaned car thanks to my awesome dad? Check.
Hardwood floors in house? Check.

Job that will provide a salary to pay for my new life in Greenville? Not-So-Check, at least not yet. We're now looking at 1st August or possibly even 16th August due to the RID conference this year.

I'm freelancing my tookus off, my boxes remain unpacked in the rec room, and I don't have the house anywhere near ready to have Leah and Russell visiting on Friday.

I need about 10 more hours in my day, at least.

Oh, and on Monday, I stood up into my cabinets and learned that you really do see stars if you hit your head hard enough. Haven't really been right since then.

I'm trying really hard not get too down on the whole thing. But here I am, 12:20 in the morning and I'm still awake and blogging. All I can do is write off today and hope tomorrow will be better.

If they ask if you are making pumpkin pie, say yes.

I have a tendency to tell too much information...really it's a tendency to run my mouth too much. Examples include the time my ex and I were shopping for a new car, and I proudly told the car salesman that my Nissan 240sx (moment of silence for the much loved Batmobile...okay, now we can continue) had a BRAND NEW engine in it! I can't seem to draw the line between enough and too much information.

Case in point, I return to my beloved Publix here in Greenville (as I've moved back into the exact neighborhood I left back in September!) and am in the checkout line with four cans of pumpkin. "Ah," says the friendly Publix Checkout Lady, "are you making pumpkin pie?"

The normal person who was in a hurry to get out of the grocery and back home would have said yes and smiled. But not me... "No, it's for my dogs actually."

Insert puzzled look here and massive sigh from the five people in line behind me.

"For your dogs?" she asks, looking as though she's vacillating between laughing and calling the ASPCA.

"Yes, it makes their tummies feel good and they just love it," I reply.

Thankfully she doesn't say another word, just continues with my checkout and hands me my receipt. Not the first time this has happened..."Wow, someone really likes chicken leg quarters! Having a BBQ?" The word yes forms in my mind and on my tongue, but what actually comes out of my mouth is different.

"No, they're for my dogs, I feed them a raw diet."

For awhile before I moved, I was "The Greyhound Lady that buys all the Chicken" at that Publix.

Bless. It's good to be home.

And just so we're all clear...

The new ticker at the bottom of my blog refers solely to how many days are left before Dubya leaves office. It is in no way connected to the conflict in the middle east or anything else of the sort. It is just a countdown until the blessed day known as Inauguration Day, 20 January, 2009. There, now we can move on...

Solitude

Solitude
Originally uploaded by NanLassiter.

I could do with being back there right now, standing in that place that had been revered, that holy and sacred space...but I have my own solitude now and I love my new house. Still, it's nice to just be still and remember.