The painters painted yesterday, and we did some pre-move in stuff (like sealing grout and a preliminary cleaning). The movers should be here between 8 and 9 tomorrow morning. It’s very disjointing to be in this split frame of reference, and I am really glad it will only last another day.

When we were there earlier, I took a few pictures, as promised, of the wonderful surprises I received from ITGirl and Lu.

First up, my wonderful Fiber Godmother sent me this great package of goodies!

I am indeed spoiled – just look at all that! She sent me 2 skeins of Lorna’s Lace in the Irving Park color way – SO pretty!, 3 sample packs of Soak in 3 different scents (been wanting to try this, and now I finally can!) a tasty mint tea (gone shortly after I took the picture actually!), a Burt’s Bees facial pack (which I will use once we are over at the new house to help me relax!) an adorable miniature sheep, and the Knit Fix book! Thank you Fiber Godmother for being so sweet and for making sure my package was mailed out early enough to hit my old address – you really treated me great! I hope your pal spoiled you well – you deserve it!!

Next up, Lu (who was my secret pal a few swaps back) sent me a completely unexpected surprise package. Her note said she saw on my blog how I was currently obsessing with greens and thought I should have this:

Yea, I will have no problem at all getting comfy with that skein of green goodness! That picture isn’t color accurate – the lighting was weird and the flash didn’t go off, and I didn’t have a lot of time to play with color correction (see movers arriving between 8 and 9 am). Trust me, it’s simply beautiful!! Go check out her etsy store and see for yourself!

And finally, one quick shot of my kitchen this afternoon

Don’t I just wish he was standing in my kitchen! I was given a life sized cutout of him a while back and when we were bringing some stuff in this afternoon, he was left behind the counter – too funny not to take the shot

I’m off to bed. ALLEGEDLY the Internet install at the new place happens tomorrow, but I’m not holding my breath. I haven’t scoped out the wireless options over there, so I’m not sure when the next post will be. You can bet I will be exhausted tomorrow either way.

Till then…

We are home owners! After signing our names over and over for about 35 minutes, we were handed the keys to our new home, congratulated, and sent on our way.

I have a ton of stuff to post about, including an AWESOME Fiber God Mother package from the VERY generous IT Girl, and a RAOK from the super sweet (and observant) Lu, but it will have to wait until tomorrow or Sunday. (If I were a gambler, I would bet on Sunday evening)

We have preliminary moving (and some celebrating!) to do!

Back soon!

I woke up early this morning since we have a ton of stuff to get done here this weekend, and my brain isn’t shutting down long enough for big chunks of sleeping. I really want to fall into bed tonight, exhausted, but with the knowledge that I have nothing that i HAVE to do tomorrow (except go to DSW, they are having a giveaway for DSW rewards members with a $40 purchase and I definitely need some new shoes). There are a lot of boxes that need filling between now and then, so getting up at the crack of dawn was the best plan of attack.

It did give me a chance to snap a shot of a gorgeous early morning sky. Please keep in mind it’s a crappy cell phone pic, so it really doesn’t do the shot justice (note to self, it’s time to upgrade the cell phone)

And now, it’s grey and kind of icky outside. I’m happy to be staying inside today.

The rest of this entry is non-knitting, just life stuff. I wasn’t even sure when I would be writing this post, since there were people that needed to hear from me before I just put it “out there”. Now that all those people know, I am free to share…

We moved to NC last October. I started my job shortly thereafter. Here it is, 1 year later – we are about to close on our house, and I have just finished my second to last week at work. I gave my notice last week, after accepting an offer that I think will give me a chance to learn, and move my career in a different direction. I’ve worked in call centers for almost as long as I can remember, and this new opportunity will definitely broaden my horizons. I couldn’t be happier, and yet…

Yesterday was the day I told my team I was leaving, and it was not easy at all. These folks (and some other very special people in the office) are a large part of why I struggled with the decision to go. I will miss seeing them on a day to day basis, but I also know that we will be but a phone call/email away. The agents on my team have so much to be proud of, and I know their commitment and drive is a huge part of my success over the last year. Their response to my news really touched me, and I’m truly flattered by their words and emotions.

There’s another group of people there that helped get me through the day, and I feel lucky to call them my friends. Somewhere along the way, these people stopped being co-workers, peers, bosses, IT guys, etc – they became the people I turned to, confided in, laughed with, cried with, plotted with, and behaved badly with. We’ve shared the ups and downs of each others lives, and I know that bond won’t be easily broken.

So yes, I am excited about my new opportunity, but very much aware of the pangs of loss. I know it isn’t a forever thing, and that we will stay in touch (I KNOW that we will, my closest friend down here is someone I met my 1st day at that job – she left fairly early on, but we still see each other just about every other weekend, and talk several times a week!!) and yet, it’s still tugging at my heartstrings.

One year, almost full circle. While we may seem to be right back where we were last year at this time, I see the progression. A new house of our very own, a new job with open possibilities, new beginnings. 2007 has been a year of transition, but I think we have successfully built the framework for tomorrow, and tomorrow’s tomorrow. Very soon, we’ll get to build around that framework, and fill it with the life that we have worked so hard to claim. And eventually, furniture!

Lots of stuff happening here, and none of it is knitting.

There’s packing. And organizing. And maybe a little bit of panicking. We have a “final” walk thru on the house on Monday, and as of our last “unofficial” walk thru yesterday, a list of roughly 18 items that need attention prior to closing on the 12th. EIGHTEEN. Granted many of them are probably do-able in the short span, and I do trust our contractor, but still…

Things like this (as seen in the garage last week) both scare and confuse me. Yes, that IS a nail head tripping the GFI.

Um, ok?

In other news – oh wait. I have no other news. I am running on autopilot trying to get thru this weekend, then Monday, then closing day. By the time Monday rolls around, I plan to have only the very basics needed for a week of living not packed, and everything else ready to go. I have my floor plan, color coded (and numbered! I have met more color blind people since I moved here than I have ever met in my life and I am covering ALL bases!) If I get thru to Wednesday, when my friend Shannon comes down, I will be home free! Not only will we be in the new place, but having Shan here will really make it special. Wish she was staying longer, but 4 days is WAY better than no days!

LONG day ahead tomorrow at work – lots of stuff going on. At least it will keep my mind off coming home and tearing thru the house – which reminds me, we need more boxes and packing tape.

Is it over yet?

It is extremely hard to be anything but happy today – it is SO nice out!! Bright blue cloudless skies, perfect temps, light breeze – just exactly my kind of day. My only regret is we don’t have outside furniture, or I would be sprawled out there with the laptop instead of inside on the desktop to post this. Ah well, it’s on the list for the new place

See how nice it is outside?

That’s the second to last Saturday Sky I will take from here! Maybe 3rd from last, since we won’t be moving in until the Monday after we close. It hasn’t been a bad year here in our rental house, but it will be nice to live in a development where every house doesn’t look exactly the same.

Since it was so nice outside, I decided to see if I could find a spot to take some shots of the Woodland Shawl – ya know, the one whole pattern repeat I’ve completed? Sadly, the choice of backdrops is limited as we have done nothing to the outside of the house we rented. Therefore, I present to you, Woodland on Pathfinder, a study in still life.

I’ll be working on this tomorrow though, during Disc One of Season Two of CSI Miami. Who knows, maybe you will see TWO whole pattern repeats next time

This past week, two very wonderful women have bestowed the Rockin’ Girl blogger award on me, and I am very flattered. Jaime is someone I have known 7(ish) years now. We met way back when online, and despite hundreds of miles between us, and never having met in person, she is someone I can easily call friend. We share very similar tastes and personality traits, and even though she thinks she won the Vin Obsession contest, I know better All joking aside, Jaime is talented and artistic and funny and genuine – one very cool chick – and I am very flattered she nominated me for this award.

The other amazing woman who nominated me is none other than Kimberli, straight from some far off exotic location (she’s in China right now, and then is off to who knows where!) Kimberli is someone who I missed meeting up with while I still lived in NY, although I am holding out hope she will meander down south during her travels. She is smart and funny, and strong, and loving, and just like Jaime, although I have never met her in person, I wouldn’t hesitate to count her amongst my friends.

Thank you ladies! You both made me smile!

ETA – In my tired state, I forgot that I too am supposed to bestow this award to 5 rockin’ girl bloggers…
Since I know many of you have been awarded, I fear that some of these may be repeats, but that’s ok – trust me, having it passed on to you more than once feels really nice

» Erica – Amazing how a little thing like a “yarn swap” can turn into friendship, huh? Balancing life with 2 kids, a hubby and a dog, Erica still finds time to knit, and be a great friend.

» Tana – Tana and I have only known each other a short time, but the more I get to know, the more I like!

» Kristi – if you haven’t seen Kristi’s patterns, read her blog, or gotten to know her, you are missing out. Kristi is not only a very talented knitter/pattern writer, but she is also a really nice person to boot!

» Nancy – Ah Nancy! Here’s a relationship that should just never work out, but did. See, Nancy is a serious Ranger Fan – and me, well we all know how I feel about the Islanders. By definition, we should be like oil and water – and yet, all her good personality traits overshadowed her questionable taste in hockey teams (I KID Nancy, I KID!)

And last, but certainly not least –

» Sooze – Talented hand dyer, smart and generous too – Sooze and I don’t converse back and forth often enough, but she is still someone I think is well deserving of a Rockin’ Girl Blogger award!

And finally, one last item that made me smile today. Earlier today while we were running all over creation trying to get things done (and accomplished a lot actually) I made my honey pull over so I could take a picture of this mailbox. In a business parking lot!

Still makes me laugh just looking at the picture.

Now I need to finish up the list for today, and get some dishes and laundry out of the way so I can kick back and knit. Every window in the house is still open, there is a nice breeze, and it will be nice to put my feet up and relax.

I knew it had been a few days since I had blogged, but when I pulled up the WP dashboard this morning, I was really surprised it was a whole week already. I’m not going to say much of anything or even feel badly about the lack of pictures or spotty blogging until after we move, because I am not all that sure how much of either I will be doing over the next few weeks. “When I can, I will” is the closest I can come to a commitment since time really is whoshing by. There’s been a ton of other stuff going on around here which I will elaborate on when I can – for now, just know that my silence is move and/or stress related – no one is sick, no one is pregnant, and everything is (or will be!) ok.

We close in (checking sidebar) 19 days. NINETEEN DAYS! We have untold amounts of packing to organizing to be done, there are still things with the house that we need answers on (driveway issue has been resolved, now there is a thing with the refrigerator. And the stone they PROMISED to fix? Not done yet. A dent in the front door jam, the front door doesn’t really fit properly, the paint job on that same front door leave much to be desired. There are kitchen cabinets with paint on them, or gouges in the wood, stains on the walls from where the did the banister, and lighting switches and fixtures that make the whole concept of level seem to be rocket science…)

19 days is a long time though in the scheme of things. It’s not like we aren’t doing anything while the clock is ticking either – we have already obtained painting estimates and chosen our contractor and colors. (We close on the 12th, his crew will be in on the 13th and 14th) Our last moving estimate will be completed on Monday. And this week, the re-boxing and packing begins in earnest.

That’s not to say there has been no knitting happening here. I took a Toe Up Socks on two Circulars class from Cristi at Charlotte Yarn yesterday, and Cristi was incredibly patient since my brain was having issue letting go of the magic loop concept I love so much and accepting the 2 circs process. Eventually, it clicked and I learned a bunch of stuff. From there, I headed over to Caribou coffee and met up with Stacey, Connie, Wendy, Fran, and some of the other Charlotte Purls. There I had the joy and pleasure of ripping a sock I had started during the week when I should have been knitting on the (poor neglected) Woodland Stole. The sock was looking really pretty and I probably could have ripped back to my mistake but a combination of the chatting I was doing instead of paying attention and the multiple compounded mistakes I made to add to the 1st one, I chose to rip. I was only an inch past the cuff anyway, no real harm. Besides, this way, I will cast the socks on toe up now to reinforce what I learned yesterday. There – I’ve rationalized the ripping and feel much better

More knitterly content – I picked up Crazy Aunt Purl’s book at Borders the other night. It’s still Until this morning, it was showing as pending shipping on Amazon since the intended release date was something like October 17th, but Laurie’s publisher got it out ahead of schedule, and it’s available in stores now. I cancelled my pending Amazon order since nothing I did made it change status and used my Border Rewards cash off and coupons to snag it up at a really great price. (let’s not discuss my need to purchase a knitting magazine and a card or two while I was there. I saved money, ok?) Ive only read a few pages because of time issues but it already has sucked me in, and Laurie’s genuine voice shines through in even the small bit I’ve read. I may be splitting my time this afternoon between knitting and this book (because I haven’t mastered the knitting and reading thing yet)

As much as I would love to plop my butt in the comfy chair, and read and/or knit away, I have some outside stuff that has to get done 1st. The plan is to get that stuff done soon, so I can come back and get to the good stuff. The man is on board with these time lines, since that means we both get to hang out and watch football this afternoon without having to run out for anything later. Tomorrow is my final Monday off (shame, I was really enjoying the 4 day work weeks!) but I do have stuff to do. Trinity is well due for a day of beauty, and she gets dropped off at 7:30 AM. I have some other stuff to do around lunchtime, after which I will pick up our squeaky clean princess and bring her home in time to meet the guy for our final moving estimate. Nothing like relaxing on a day off, huh?

Here’s to finding at least some pocket of time to do what makes us happy… I’m off to do just that!

Warning – this will probably be a picture heavy post, and will have no knitting content (other than the fact that I flew to NY for the weekend, took my knitting with me, and didn’t touch it once.) I will not be at all insulted if you just click on by, honest!

So, for the 1 of you who decided to stay and read, I got home late last night (early this morning really, our flight was WAY delayed and we got in our front door here at 3:45am. We were scheduled for a 11:30pm landing. Seriously.) and feel asleep wondering how I can be so connected to so many people back in NY, and love some of the conveniences and the things I have become accustomed to, and yet, it just didn’t feel like home. That’s not to say I feel completely settled in here, or that I have completely severed all ties with NY – I don’t, and I haven’t. But I can say with unwaivering certainty that moving here was the right thing, and that these past 8 months (EIGHT MONTHS!! ) have flown by!!

We flew up very early Friday morning. We had some paperwork stuff to take care of early, so we got that out of the way by 12pm, checked into our hotel (felt SO weird to be in a hotel! We could have stayed with a variety of people who all offered, we just didn’t want to impose on anyone, and we liked having no timelines, or worries about our comings and goings conflicting with anyone) We went to dinner Friday night with our friends Shan and Bri (and since we have been spoiled by Chinese food in China town, of course we had to head into NYC for a fix!!)

On Mott Street, off of Canal

I don’t even know who ordered what, the 4 of us just split everything

There was more, but the smells lured me into eating instead of photgraphing

I’m impressed this last one came out – I stuck the camera out the window from the back seat as we were driving home to take a pic of the Brooklyn Bridge! No retouching at all (except for thumbnailing for posting)

Saturday morning, I knew I needed to start my day the right way.

I miss 7-11 coffee. I miss 7-11 period! I SO wish they would come back here (apparently they WERE here but all closed? The closest I am told is in VA. *sigh*)

We spent the majority of the day visiting my dad. Sadly, I have but one picture of the time there, and it is a Saturday sky shot.

We intended to try and see Pirates Saturday night, but by the time we got the details worked out, it was late, all the showings were either sold out, or front row seating only, and we decided to just hit up a coffee place, sit outside, and enjoyed the company. We were all pretty tired anyway, so it was a relatively early night.

Sunday, we got up early, had breakfast, and then I got to be super secret sneaky! See, part of the reason we went up was for my friend Joyce’s surprise graduation BBQ. Not only was the BBQ a surprise, but my being there was a surprise too! No one knew I was coming!

Although it looks like Joyce is looking at the sign above her head, she is actually dramatically looking to the future.

Sadly, I couldn’t stay there tooooo long, as we had a flight home to catch. Allegedly anyway. We got delayed and delayed and delayed and finally made it back here safe and sound at almost 4 in the morning.

Which brings me back around to the topic at hand – home. I know the cliche, and I agree mostly. I think there is a part of me that feels almost guilty for not being more homesick. I DO miss my friends and family, SO MUCH. But Long Island? The place I grew up? Not so much. I guess it’s not such an awful thing, I just know so many people who think of the place they grew up with such high regard. I have great memories but they revolve around PEOPLE not the place. I’m just going to keep reminding myself that THEY are what matter. The people who matter know that they do, and know they are missed. If people think I am awful for not being homesick, so be it.

I also did something today that really made the move feel real. I got up, and went to the DMV and took my license test. (NY & NC aren’t reciprocal, so I had to take the test again, and at the discretion of the examiner, I could have had to take the road test. Fortunately, I had a very nice examiner who said he would let me slide this time I passed my vision and written tests (100 on both thankyouverymuch) and got my new license. They took my NY license though From there, we headed over to the other DMV office (you can’t do licenses and registration/titles in one place here apparently)

Yea, I know, you can’t read the plate. It’s a generic NC new tag. At some point we may switch to vanity tags ( NooYawka? ) The point is, it’s a NC plate.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end… (nothing like a trite pop lyric to drive a point across huh?)

Even though I will be playing serious catch up at work since I was off Friday & today, I am SO glad it is a short week. And for those of you who stuck it out and read this far, I hope to have some actual knitting content soon ™ (despite the fact my knitting traveled 1400 miles and never saw the light of day). Hopefully there is enough knitting fodder swirling around blogland that my pathetic lack thereof won’t be tooooo noticable?