pretty much the way it is.

the woes of moving.

so, a lot of my stuff is packed up. i've managed to get most of it into assorted boxes (including a huge wardrobe box). i hope it all fits into the "relocube." we'll see. it might take careful strategy. i've got a lot of friends coming to help me pack it so it should work out.

anna (and i) ordered boxes for moving. the problem was that we weren't sure of the size and ordered too many large boxes. now we have many, many large boxes and i hope they fit into my truck. i mean, we have MANY MANY large boxes.

anna and i managed to be mad at each other yesterday without really blowing up at the other. it's actually been like this for a while. one day, we'll just get grouchy or annoyed and walk around with our attitudes. yesterday was particularly bad. we walked around the house doing different things, but being pissy at the other person. it ended with me going to bed and anna staying up packing/moving stuff around. i came home from work this afternoon and we both apologized and laughed at it. now, it's just funny. moving makes people crazy. period.

she moves out tomorrow and i'll pack the truck on sunday. i can't believe almost a year has gone by. she's been a great friend and an amazing roommate. i'll miss her.

in other news, i've finished my presentation -- i think. my mom comes up on wednesday and we'll probably do the last minute run around/packing. hopefully it goes ok. keep your fingers crossed for friday!

Miss Zoe

Most of the things associated with moving have been exciting: being near Evan again, the house, being done with school, getting a new job. One of the less fun thing was taking Zoe to live with her new family today.

We (Zoe and I) spent the day together. I annoyed the heck out of her over the last few days. I kept picking her up and petting her or petting her while she was sleeping or otherwise just bugging her. She clearly didn't know what was going on. I just knew I was going to miss her so much. So I bugged her.

She's been such a good cat. We went through some hard times together. Well, I went through the hard time (I think the hardest time she might have faced was when I forgot to feed her). She was always there. In any event, she's been one of the best things in my life. I know she's gone to a good home. I could not ask for a better place for Zoe to be. I can't imagine having taken her to live in anyone else's care.

I will miss her so much. Good luck in your new home, sweetie.

so funny...

Redheads protest Wendy's logo.

and

Best Buy overloaded with cult-like look-alikes.

taking a break...

i have been practicing my defense. i've got most of it in the powerpoint and now it's just a matter of repetition to ensure that it comes off flawlessly. i don't want anyone to accuse me of having my committee go easy on me or, worse, be slaughtered during the Q&A after the presentation. i just need to keep going over it. i don't know if powerpoint on a PC has this, but my version of powerpoint (you know, the better MAC version) has a "presenter's tools" which shows the slide, the upcoming slide(s), and the notes underneath, so you get everything right in front of you as you present. OH! and the timer as well. the timer is the best feature because it's hard to keep track of your time as your speaking and i need to keep my talk under 20 minutes. i'm trying to get it closer to 17-18 minutes, but it's really hard and i'm winded afterwards.

i had a BBQ with my dear friend sylvia and her daughter yesterday. it was fun. they've been so kind to me while i've lived up here. sylvia and i stopped by a farm stand on the way back from bernardston and we ran into a few of her friends. it was nice to meet them and she bragged about me.

i can't believe it's been two years. i remember when i packed up for massachusetts. it was so scary and i was so nervous. the two years just flew by. i know that this move prepared me to be able to move to FL, which is a much bigger move in many respects. it's further from my family, i'll be in a new role, i'm starting a real job (with good people, but a lot of work!), and going to a new church (which is very different than any of the churches i've gone to). the best thing about this scary new step is having my best friend in the world be part of it. :-)


(sorry for the cheese)

odds and ends

1. I'm getting better at doing stuff by myself. Of course. Now that I'm going to have my someone around more often. It would have been a helpful thing to learn to do two years ago.

2. Related to that point, treat yourself and go see Hairspray. John Travolta as a woman isn't at all convincing, but it is entertaining. And the music is good. It's all around fun. It's probably good that I'm able to do the first item on the list because I don't think I could have convinced Evan to see Hairspray, or I wouldn't have wanted to see the movie that would have been on the end of the bargain...

3. 30 years to PhD. Maybe I can do it after all

4. Speaking of PhDs, Pile Higher and Deeper has been doing the the grad school version of GREASE. Haha. You can totally hear it work out. Now, only if it came with a soundtrack...

an update

Sorry about the lack of updates. I didn't think anyone read this anymore, but was corrected the other day. My sincere apologies.

I just finished and submitted my final draft of my thesis. By final I don't really mean final because I'm sure there will corrections to make after my defense. Speaking of the defense, having to do one after finishing the written part of my paper is AWFUL. I just want to be done. I just want them to say, "Hello! You've done amazing work. Here's your masters. Now, go to Florida." Instead, I'm fiddling with Powerpoint (and I'd rather use Keynote, but don't want to pay for it) trying to make some coherent 20 minute talk. My paper is 56 pages long. Squeezing that to 20 minutes is less than pleasant. My mom and Evan are coming up for the defense which makes me exceedingly happy. My committee isn't awful, but there is at least one unfriendly face and one smartie so I'm relieved to have happy smiling people there. Oh, and my good friend Laura is coming back from GA just for me. Talk about making someone feel special.

In other events, "we" settle on the house this afternoon. By "we" I mean Evan. I can't be down there and my name will be changing so it's really just him today. Goooooo settlement. We picked out the colors for the house when I visited and we picked out furniture. It's not what I had envisioned for furniture, but it's grown on me.

I move in four weeks. I'm really excited. Blair is driving down with me. I'm thinking about getting a book on tape (probably the first Harry Potter). If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Back to working on the presentation of death.