Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

Wow, life's been crazy for me lately.

There's really no part of my life I haven't changed in the last couple of months. I moved back to the Chicago area (and holy smokes was THAT a nightmare! OMG moving SUCKS!). I changed jobs. I got a new vehicle. I've started (may the gods be merciful) dating again. Changed, changed, changed.

Well, except for my hair. So this weekend, I'm getting that highlighted. My life already feels pretty surreal, why not scare the hell out of myself every time I pass a reflective surface?

Happy New Year

A recap of my week:

Monday: flew from Cleveland to Chicago (oh, the irony) to Raleigh, my friend picked me up and we drove to the middle of freakin' nowhere. We stopped at the house, I picked up the jeep and hauled in the mail, then off to the studio to visit and GLAZE. Got back to the house around 9:30, cleaned a bit and fell into bed. (It's funny - I had never had keyless entry before Petunia. Within two weeks, I was totally ruined. WTF do you mean, I have to use a key?? At first, I found myself pretty much incapable of figuring out how the jeep worked. How quickly I forget...)

Tuesday: Up at 8:00, the packers arrived shortly after that and then I spent the day trying (with marginal success) to get them to pack what needed to go while leaving what needed to stay. While they were busy downstairs, I stealthily managed to pack up all of the liquids and chemicals that they wouldn't pack that were upstairs. (This was 8 boxes of stuff from the bathroom closet and the laundry room.) I went out at lunch and picked up food for them. (It's best to keep these people happy, after all.) Packed: my hairbrush, towels (but I managed to grab a couple of clean "junk" towels so I could actually shower), the carrying case to my toothbrush, the 3 bags for goodwill [that I had signs (STAYS!) on, told 3 people they stayed and hid in a previously empty closet], a secretaries desk, all of my trash bags, and a bunch of other stuff I probably need. I kept stashing packing paper, boxes, and tape so I could keep packing after they left, they kept taking my stashes away from me and putting them back in the truck. I finally resorted to hiding paper and tape outside when they weren't looking, and just demanding that they leave boxes. Headed to my friends' for dinner (their homemade lasange - YUMMY!) then back to the house where I spent several more hours packing up all of the liquids that I wanted them to take. (The customer service guy at the movers basically said that if I packed it, they'd take it with no questions - wink, wink, nudge, nudge.)

Wednesday: I didn't hear the alarms on my phones (alarm clocks got packed), or the huge truck pulling up. The driver pounding on the door woke me up. The day was spent riding herd on the loaders. There was a lot that the packers didn't pack, and it turned out that the driver had already picked up two over-sized loads, so there was about half of the space for mine that there was supposed to be, so he loaded up the heavy stuff and called for a second truck. The second truck didn't arrive until 5:00, and that bunch was completely incompetant. I had to instruct them to put everything in boxes, even though they KNEW it was going into a warehouse and needed to be better packed than if it was a straight shot in one truck. Then I had to stand there and make sure they did it. They didn't leave until after 7:00. My friend had come over when I started squawking about the second truck. She and I grabbed burgers and headed to her house. We ate and watched "Nunsense" and then I crashed there.

Thursday: Up around 9:00, to PetSmart for Nature's Miracle cat treatment, then to the house, treated the carpet then off to deal with the Post Office, electric company, gas company, return the cable box and remote, so on and so on. Then to the studio to work on glazing. Then my friend and I went to dinner to use the "baseball bucks" from my previous company. I had $75 in baseball bucks, dinner (drinks, appetizer, 2 dinners, desserts and coffee) was $75.15. SO SO SO good! Then I went back to the house and cleaned and packed up misc stuff until 2 am. Then I sneaked quietly into my friend's house and fell into bed.

Friday: Up around 8:30, did the final walk-thru with my landlord, then finished cleaning the stove. Wrapped my plants up in stretch wrap, loaded everything into the jeep, went to the studio, finished glazing, loaded my pottery supplies into the jeep and hit the road around 6 pm for Ohio.

I arrived at my parents' house about 11 am this morning, and fell into bed for about 5 hours. I'll leave here later tonight to head for Chicago with the cats. I have an appointment tomorrow at 2:00 to meet my new landlord and pick up my keys.

The first truck is supposed to arrive with my stuff on the fourth. No clue when the second truck will arrive. Maybe someday, this hell will actually be over...