Moving Chronicles

I packed my collection of books today. A mixture of science fiction, swords & sorcery, and other whimsical titles are all neatly boxed up and awaiting the final layer of packing tape. I'm becoming an old hand at packing up my things and saying goodbye to friends. From home to dorm. From dorm to apartment. From apartment to graduate school. Now from grad school to the Big Apple. My uncle commented on our possible gypsy blood that calls on us to uproot every few years, and I can understand what he meant.
When I left Fayetteville, Arkansas, I promised friends that I'd return with my graduate degree to see them again. Their e-mails stopped about six months into my program. Now, it was a mutual growing apart as it is hard to keep ties when life takes you in different directions. (Happily, family and friends from other places keep popping into my life.) I was lucky in Fayetteville, that I hadn't met anyone (romantically) that could tie a string to my heart. This move, I'm a little less fortunate. I finally met someone, but while he has a firm grip on one of my heart strings, I am considered to be only a friend to him. I met the girl he started dating over New Year's and I wished them well. Argh.
New York will be my new challenge. I doubt that I will be looking for love anytime soon, but I'm told that when you're not looking, it sneaks up on you. We'll see. I'm going to be so busy trying to find work in a library, everything else will fall to the wayside. Or I might take up roller derby...whichever works best.

Adventures in New Yorker Land

Wow. A lot has changed since my last post. (Since I only update every few months, this is expected.) Still, here's the news. I'm moving to Brooklyn, New York to live in my sister and brother-in-law's spare bedroom.
How can this be happening? Economics. I got the degree, now I have to pay for it and with the hiring freeze that's happening in so many libraries, I'm sinking fast. My relatives have tossed me a line that will allow me to keep my head above water long enough for a) the hiring freeze to thaw or b) me to find another way for my degree to start paying for itself. This is a good chance for me, so I have to take it.
New York is a big, confusing place that reminds me that even though I have lived in a semi-large city like Knoxville, I haven't lived in a big city yet. This country girl is fighting hard not to feel intimidated. I move slower, talk slower, (I hope I don't think slower), and my fashion sense has been known to stray into tacky territory. New York has never been a place that I dreamed about living in. I think Seattle was my chosen territory for teen aged daydreams until I realized that I'm not fond of constant rain and that flannel rock had died with Kurt Cobain. Maybe the fact that I haven't daydreamed about New York will make its reality easier to take. Who knows?
I thought about ending this update with a list of all of the things I'm going to miss once I move to New York, but that's not the right attitude to take. Rather than be bittersweet, here's a list of things I will like about New York.

1. Food. You name it, they got it. You have to jump a train for an hour to get it, but it will be worth it.
2. Events. How many times have I wished to see a concert or attend a book signing only to hear that it happening only in the major cities like New York and L.A?
3. Surprises. (Hopefully the good kind.) There's always something unexpected around the bend.

I suspect that a lot of my frustrations and ponderings will filter out through this blog in upcoming weeks. Stay tuned.

Start the Year with a Vacation

Ah, I have finally gotten my EB/Mom fix that I had been craving for almost half a year. The three amigas reunited in New York City for New Year's. We ate, laughed, and walked until our legs felt like they were going to fall off. EB's fiancee John was really nice considering we made him homeless for a full week while the Butler gals took over the apartment.
The trip was really fun. I had my usual can't-get-used-to-this freak out, where my brain overloads with the reality that is New York. Then once the reboot took hold, I was fine and was full-on-in-the-city-mode. Mom wandered the Metropolitan museum for hours with EB and I tagging along. I loved the Tiffany lamp section and EB loved the costume section. Mom loved it all. :)
We ate lunch in the restaurant where John works, Le Bernardin. I dressed in my best New Yorker black and hoped that I wouldn't bring shame to my family by eating the garnish off of my plate. I was worried for nothing. Le Bernardin was amazing. Each course was new and exciting to me and not only were we treated like princess V.I.Ps, we were allowed back into the kitchen to thank John in person. I was never made to feel inferior and the food was excellent.
As for the rest of my trip, we shopped at all of the New Year's sales, ate raw oysters and clams on the sidewalk in the Bronx, found that I had terrific taste in handbags when my first choice came to damn near $200 dollars (I'll visit it again, but I cannot afford to be its new mommy), sat on my sister's rooftop and watched 2007 be celebrated with gorgeous fireworks, talked my Mom and sister into watching, "Slither," for the first time, and going to the theater to watch the awesome, "Pan's Labyrinth."
We did so much, there's no way I can fit it all into this blog. I got my family fix, where I'm hugged and told, through voice and action, that I am loved and that I belong. My next fix will be in June when the entire clan gathers to witness Elisabeth and John's nuptials. Summer cannot get here fast enough, but until then, I will be working my way towards my degree and hopefully a job that will allow me to visit my family more often. Happy New Year, folks!