HELLO WORLD. Man, it feels weird to not post as frequently as I'm used to. I got a bit out of the habit when I was packing/moving/internet-less, but now it's just kind of weird. The job is going extremely well, keeping me super busy and occupied and I LOVE IT. My brain has been hurting every evening, because I'm literally not used to using it as much (I mean, it was definitely not taxed for a year and a half).

I've been keeping pretty busy still. ( My adventures in Colorado, so far. )

Today was my last day of work at the old job. HOORAY. We all went to Meg O'Malley's, the Irish pub downtown, for lunch, so I got me some macaroni and cheese (it's made with DUBLINER) and even more importantly, I managed to not eat all of it in one sitting (which I can totally do, it's so freaking good) so now I can have more of it tomorrow! Wooo.

Speaking of tomorrow, it's going to be a doozy. I'm going to a WW meeting in the morning (my last one for at least a little while) and then take Vera to the vet. Hopefully the vet will give me a prescription for some sort of kitty Xanax so she will not be so upset while stuck in a car for a while. Then I have to get my tires rotated, and hopefully drive down to Palm Bay to drop off some stuff that a friend lent me, and pack pack pack. Thursday morning, I'm turning in all of my cable and internet stuff, so I will have no more cable or internet at home, but I'm also driving to my parents' house on Thursday (with brief detours for lunching and Ikea shopping in Orlando), so I'll still have access to the interwebs for a few days. Saturday I drive back to Melbourne and have a visit with theemdash planned, and then Sunday is the packing/cleaning party (which I hope will be more cleaning than packing, but we'll have to see) which will be followed by pizza nommage hopefully. Monday my pod arrives, Tuesday morning the movers come to load the the pod, and that evening I drive back to my parents' house so my mom and I can leave bright and early Wednesday morning.

To say that I won't be around much for the next week and a half is an understatement.

I just want to curl up in bed and read more Harry Potter, but I need to get cracking and get some stuff done this evening. It strangely feels like I have so much to do and yet am so close to being done. I can't quite get a handle on the state of things. Oh well.

Jenny Lewis was amazing last night. The whole night was a bit ..., but the actual performance was great, especially when everyone, en masse, decided to eschew the whole seating arrangement (who schedules a rock show in a playhouse?) and bumrushed the stage. Hopefully some of the pictures I took will come out well once I zoom in and crop a bit. My, but that girl can sing.

THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE HAPPY, SUPPORTIVE WORDS. I'm really excited, although right now I'm really just exhausted.

Some details: My title will be Assistant Editor, and I'll be working on a variety of projects in different forms of media (print, TV, electronic). My last day with this company is June 30, and my first day with at the new job is July 13. THAT'S NOT FAR AWAY. I literally have 2 weeks to get everything packed and ready to move before I start driving out there. Of course, in the mean time, I still have to go to work every day for 4 more days--okay, 3 and a half as of this posting--, go to Orlando on Sunday to see some friends who are visiting from out of state, go back to Orlando on Monday night for the Jenny Lewis concert with turalu_21 (a more prudent person than I would skip it, but I need some C-time, I've been looking forward to this show for months, and I've never seen Jenny on her own), take Vera to the vet to get her shots up to date, drive across the state to my parents' house for my grandmother's memorial service and family time, and then drive back and load the pod. All told, I'll have three full days of packing, and that's it. Obviously I have evenings and half days here and there, but whew.

My mother is coming over this Saturday to help with the packing efforts, and I've already started a bit myself, but man. A smidge overwhelmed.

Thankfully I don't have to immediately worry about finding a place to live, because myras_girls and her delightful hubby have volunteered some space at their domicile. The one concern I have with that is the fact that Vera is a diva and she gets riled up around other animals, but hopefully she will either a) learn to coexist peacefully with other beings or b) learn to love being cooped up in one room.

I've been trying to make a mental list of things that are going to have to go in the car with me (and my mom and Vera). I'm torn, because I won't have a lot of room for yarn paraphernalia, but I am also going to have to go at least a few weeks without access to any of the stuff I put in the pod, so... I have to plan that carefully. I'm thinking about taking the yarn and magazine for the next large project I have in mind (the Elemental Boatneck pullover from the Summer IK issue), as well as the yarn for my mom's blanket (note to self: wind yarn) and a couple of skeins for socks (one sock I'm test knitting, one sock I'm "re-designing", whatever is still on the needles at the time). Money will be tight so I can't just buy more yarn until I can get to my stash! Clearly I'm going to need more projects in the project box. Meep.

I also am figuring out the reading material situation. I plan on setting aside whatever Harry Potter books I don't finish before I leave, but as I just finished Chamber of Secrets last night and will likely start on Prisoner of Azkaban today at lunch or dinner before knit night... well, at least Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, and Half-Blood Prince are fairly long.

See, this would be a good time to have a Kindle. They take up much less space.

Please, when I lament about the fact that I have all of this stuff with me, everyone just keep your mouths shut and don't point out the fact that it's really only about 3 and a half days of trading off driving with my mother and I'm packing entertainment items like it's 3 months. The yarn is the important thing, though, I'm sure I can find other entertainment for myself until I can access my boxes.

I'm leaning towards throwing in my Sandman volumes. They're skinny.

( entirely unrelated MGG pics )

Star Trek + "I'm On a Boat" = BEST THING EVER (Totally NSFW, but had me rolling on the floor, for serious.) Scroll all the way down to the bottom to watch the fanvid version. My one regret is that there are apparently no flippy-floppies in space.

In related news, I need a new stamp in my Fangirl passport because I am all aboard the Chris Pine Fantrain. I blame lanyon and spoonishly. And by blame, I mean thank.

I'm thinking about seeing The Hangover this weekend. I'm tempted to turn it into a double-header and see Star Trek again. And then I may watch some more Harry Potter movies in anticipation of my re-read of the series. OH, I also borrowed Rise of the Lycans and S. Darko (the latter purely for the Jackson content, as I really do not like Donnie Darko) from Jen.

I finished a pair of socks last night and immediately cast on for another. It's a sickness. And my February Lady Sweater is moving along. For some reason the rows of garter stitch were nothing, but the gull lace is dragging a bit. I think it's the fact that I actually have to pay attention. I can knit all day long with no problems, but knit plus yarn overs and then purling back is a bit more time-consuming? I don't know. Meanwhile, I found the most adorable cardigan yesterday and it totally called out to be knit in the green Ella Rae yarn that I picked up on sale and so now I really want to knit it. One problem: the pattern is in French. Any of my knitter friends read French knitting instructions? I think I can figure most of it out with the help of Babelfish and my own knowledge of French and knitting, but a little support would not be amiss.

So, we had a few days of excitement there, but now it seems that all is back to normal and I'm still an incredible nerd who loves sci-fi/fantasy and knitting.

I am not going to lie. Most of you wish you were here right now.

After watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on ABC Family and then the beginnings of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I decided that I needed to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. So I did. And I twittered an awful lot about that, sorry. And now it's time for Labyrinth. SIR DIDYMUS, yes.

Am tempted to blow off work tomorrow and have a Lord of the Rings marathon or a full on Harry Potter marathon, but I know that won't happen. Sigh.

I still want to be Sarah for Halloween some year, but I'm afraid that no one will get it if I just show up in jeans and a long, flowy white shirt. Maybe if I could harass someone into being the Goblin King.