"With enough courage, you can do without a reputation." (Rhett Butler, GWTW)

I have started and stopped about a dozen posts in the last week. I think I have a severe combination of writer's block, lack of interesting life-itis, and lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer syndrome.

I did very little this past weekend which was very nice. Friday night I took advantage of the crappy weather and settled in to watch DVRed Gone with the Wind. The older I get the more I love this movie. I like the intricacies of the setting and the history and the characters and their motivations. Nothing should be taken at face value and it's far more complicated than it may seem. (Random, but my current favorite line is what I also would name a band if I had one. From the line Scarlett utters upon returning to Tara and discovering the Union army had used the home as a base: "Yankees...in Tara!" I don't know, it's just the way she says it I love.)

Saturday I hung around the apartment and read and watched TV. Sunday I went to the movies to see The Hangover. I thoroughly enjoyed it and laughed until my abs hurt. I have no tolerance for lowbrow or toilet humor, so was pleasantly surprised that it relied more on utterly ridiculous and hilarious situations. A tiger? A random baby? Mike Tyson? That's just good clean fun. (And seeing as how I will be in Vegas in a month, I may have taken notes.)

The only semi-big news of the week was that the roomie and I renewed our lease for another year. This is actually big news for me because since I left home for college seven (!) years ago, I've never stayed in one place longer than a year. (And usually, it was only about 9 or 10 months.) I believe the family was especially excited about this as they don't have to help me move! To understand why I feel such an abounding relief about this, a list I am calling All My Moves:

• Florida - January 1984 to 1986ish?
• Wilmington - 1986ish to 1989
• Goldsboro (Home) - July 1989 to ?
• Craige (CH) - August 02 to May 03
• Home - May 03 to August 03
• Craige (CH) - August 03 to January 04
• Cobb (CH) - January 04 to May 04
• *moved everything home for a week*
• TH Apartments (CH) - May 04 to July 04
• Home - August 04
• McIver (CH) - August 04 to May 05
• *moved half of stuff home and half to house*
• *school and travel in London and Europe - May 05 to July 05*
• 607 H'borough (CH) - July 05 to May 06
• SH Apartments (CH) - May 06 to July 06
• Home - August 06
• London - September 06 to March 07
• Home - March 07 to August 07
• Arlington - September 07 to August 08
• D.C. - August 08 to present

I need to remember this list the next time I start to feel antsy and restless. Sometimes all I want is to settle down and find a place to make my own home. And sometimes I just want to keep going and going. Which is what they said in Jersey Boys: "Like that bunny on tv with the battery, I just keep going and going and going. Chasing the music; trying to get home."

Day 230: It's official

In the six years since starting college I have moved 14 times. Four dorm rooms, five apartments, one flat, and countless stops in-between to home home. Two states, five cities, two countries, and now one district, as I moved into Washington, DC today.

Day 228: The second best kind of ring ever

In all my moves over the years, and there are plenty, I've done a lot of packing. A LOT. But today is the first day I've done some packing whilst wearing a ring pop. I may be 24 and on my own, but I like rings and I like candy. And I like a good sugar high when packing up my life for the bajillionth time.

"All these assumptions society makes. Get a job, eat food, live in a house. It's facism. Absolute [sic] facism." -Mason, Dead Like Me

Small update before the weekend.

On Wednesday I got a very un-expected call from a recruitment/temp agency that had seen my resume posted on Monster.com. Automatically they scored a few points for not being an insurance company attempting to recruit me for sales, which thus far have been the only people to contact me out of the blue.

Anyway, they had a lead on a temp writing job and wanted to speak with me further. So I walked into Ballston, took the metro a few stops, then took a bus, to their office in Tyson's Corner. (Oh the glories of not driving.) After many little tests and chatting, they submitted my info to the job. As of now I haven't heard anything. But it would be good to have some income for a few weeks while I look for something permanent.

In the meantime, today they had a job working for a few hours as a receptionist at a law firm in the Courthouse area. So I did that. I guess it's a good day when only one person screams at you over the phone, and at least it was in English. And to hear a lawyer get a room of lawyers to quiet down by screaming, "All rise!", well, it made me laugh to myself entirely too much.

As for the interview last Friday, I think it went ok. I'm not crazy about the job, and the commute really is not ideal, but I'm holding out on a final judgment until I hear anything. Normally I can get a feel for what they were thinking, or how they perceived me, but not this time. They did email earlier this week for a writing sample, which I sent, but as of now I haven't heard anything. Which goes for pretty much everything these days.

I don't have any city pics, but as I finish my room I may post some of it. Here is the more finished part and usually my favorite part of any room: my desk.
Complete with my first Caramel Apple Cider of the season. :-) I should just give up now and buy stock in Starbucks.
And the piece de resistance - the first and only covered bulletin board I (and Mom) will ever make. If there is a trick to a staple gun, Mom and I did not find it.
And because I just have too much stuff, shelves. And the bad part is I still have a rolling plastic cart full of more stuff. If anyone ever sees me attempt to buy post-it notes, note cards, or note pads, you have my permission to tackle me.

Maybe I'll have something more exciting next time. Lovely weekend wishes to all! :-)

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

In typical me-fashion, any new stage of my life must be accompanied by either one or all of three things:

1. a new outfit
2. a new haircut
3. a new journal

I already have the new haircut, I'm sure I'll be adding numerous outfits into the mix soon enough, and as I've already started a new paper journal, it seems only right to start a new online journal as well.

(And there is of course the fact that I apparently reached my e-mail peak while in college, because I am averaging a week or more to return e-mails, if I even start them at all. Considering how bad I am at talking on the phone, I'm hoping this is only a phase.)

So here it is, so all family, friends, and random passer-by can see how I am spending the next six months, and beyond, of my life. I'll put the day-to-day occurrences in here, keeping the e-mail correspondence to more personal matters.

It is now time to get to the packing, as I have put it off long enough. The large pile of clothes I want to take are taunting me, as they know they can not all possibly fit in the annoyingly small suitcase they have to go in. This is when I wish the invention I came up with years ago to turn my Barbie clothes into real life-size clothes, and visa versa, had actually been invented. How cool would it be to fit your entire life into a snazzy pink 12x12 plastic case?