FYI – this blog will not be available for sometime Friday until sometime Saturday or Sunday, or maybe later. Because, well, we’re moving, and the server this blog is hosted on? It lives at our house, so it’s moving too. (And yes, this does mean I will be without Facebook for, like, at least a day. Oh, the tragedy of it all!)

Today has been cra-zy at work. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

I could not be happier that classes are over tonight. It’s not that it’s been a particularly difficult semester – at least, not as difficult as I thought it might be. But, I am tired.

So tired, in fact, that as I was walking back from the employee lunch room, I was lamenting how tired I was, and how there would be no sleeping in tomorrow, even though I’m not going to work. And then I was feeling sorry for myself that there would be no sleeping in on Saturday either, because there are moving vans to return, people coming out to install the internet, and MOM will be arriving at some point to set up our kitchen.

But. BUT. Then I remembered… Sunday. Ah, beautiful Sunday. And all I could think of was our bed, with our wonderfully comfy sheets and cozy quilt, sitting in that huge master bedroom at our new house. And then I was OK with being tired for the next 48-60 hours. That Sunday morning bed is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel of this journey that started not back in July when the house went on the market, or in February before that when we started to fix up the house, or in the September before that when we got married, but in the June before that (2007) when we started moving my stuff into the townhouse. It’s been a loooong journey, when you look at it that way. (Heck, I thought it was long when I considered last July the beginning.) And now, the end is here. The end which is really a very exciting beginning.

Sometimes it seems like there aren’t enough voluntary beginnings in life, but more so the beginnings that we’re “making lemonade out of lemons.”

Lastly, I’d like to put a huge amount of gratitude out there for our Realtor, who is taking care of the mice in the new house right now, and our mortgage guy, who is making everything happen in record time to make sure we’re not homeless for even a night. We’re considering sending them large meat baskets. (Originally, I proposed fruit baskets, but, well, they’re guys, and meat seemed more appropriately manly.)

Did you know that there are, like, options when shopping for toilets, beyond the plastic versus porcelain or white versus ivory ones? (Sidenote: I do not envy whoever it is who ends up carrying the new toilet, whatever we end up picking out, down to the basement, because those things are hea-vy.) I thought the options for kitchen faucets were difficult, and at least I cared about those (brushed nickel, yes; removable sprayer, yes; not ugly, yes).

Did you know that there are approximately two quadrillion ugly rugs in this world, and only three that are cute, only one or two of which will fit (either size-wise or color-wise) in the room you’re trying to decorate. One should definitely not go searching for rugs on the internet, because that just increases the number of available rug options. It is juch easier to decide to not buy a rug.

Did you know that it’s possible to spend several hours watching television on the last weekend of the semester, while achieving a 4.0 GPA and with an upcoming move in 5 days? It totally is.

Did you know that it’s easier to live with only half a dozen things in your kitchen cabinets? It’s so easy to find what you want (provided it’s in there). Also, it’s completely possible to live without spices for weeks on end (though it should be noted that cookies will not be baked until spices have been unpacked). And, you should never keep a cucumber past it’s time, because those things are beyond gross when they get moldy. Thawed frozen shrimp, however, totally fine (not edible, mind you, but not stinky or icky).

Did you know that if you have a box in your house, it must be sat upon by any nearby cat? Any box. Every box. The taller, the better, though occasionally, just to mess with us, they’ll choose the shorter of the two stacks to sit on. What else qualifies as a “box”? The luggage, which is now covered in cat hair.

And, just a word of advice, you should be very, very cautious when considering ordering a part from Sears Parts Direct. If you need that part (say, for instance, the repair kit for the washing machine) soon (and hence pay exorbidant rates for express shipping), and their system eats part of your shipping address (like removing the suite number from your office building that guarantees the shipper will not deliver it), you are SOL. Hopefully you don’t need that part soon (like, for instance, by Friday when you sell the house). According to customer service, the shipper has time to care about that one package and will look up the sender in the system, give them a call, find the correction to the address, and then deliver it. Right. (And yes, you did read that right. Our washing machine partially broke, six days before the closing on our house. Of course it did.)

I would like to announce that today, I have graduated to a second bottle of water (“bottle” meaning aluminum canister that I got from last week, or BPA-free plastic bottle I’ve been toting around for the last few months). I know, this is monumental. I’ve surpassed the 13 ounces of water in my original plastic bottle and require a second. A key in this is that I have a second bottle, because the water here at work, which is “filtered” (which may just mean moved via a tube from the tap to the dispenser) tastes awful. And I’m not a huge fan of water anyway, so drinking bad water is just… not happening.

I thought you’d like to know.

Also, I should note that these developments (consuming the first bottle, and now graduating to the second) mean that I take a lot more breaks during the day at work, if you know what I mean. Sorry if that’s TMI, but I’ve been reading the back archives of Dooce, and she talks about bodily functions all the time, and it’s wearing off on me.

Things I am excited about, this Monday afternoon.

• Having all of our stuff in the same place finally, instead of at home, in the storage unit, and at ‘s.
• My piano.
• Gardening.
• Painting.
• Making clothes for myself again (I promised myself that I’d buy a dress form if I got straight A’s).
• The deck, and the kitchen.
• No longer being in transition.
• No more moving for many, many years (I probably shouldn’t say things like this, or should knock on wood or something, for fear of angering the Murphy’s law fairy or something).
• Did I mention the 4 months without homework?

Who said Mondays were bad?

*Note: none of the above will actually be true for another week or more, but the anticipation of it all is enough.

Friday’s doctor visit went well. Have I mentioned how much I love my new doctor? I might keep going to her after we move. She took a quick look in my ears, up my nose, and at my throat, and determined that I did not have a sinus or ear infection. The diagnosis? Allergies. Woo-hoo. One prescription for generic Flo-Nase, two days, and I’m back to normal. This is me officially reporting that nasal allergies have nothing on skin allergies. You know, the skin allergies that took a week of patch testing to diagnose and even then it’s tricky buying lotion and soap because they didn’t find all the allergies, the skin allergies that make scented soaps and perfumes impossible, buying sunscreen beyond difficult, and tanning? forget about it. Also forget about shaving with anything other than a plain-bladed razor and the most gentle soap you can find.

Today I am breathing freely, the congestion in my throat is gone, and there is no more plugging in my ears, which is good, because that was driving me a little crazy (it was especially bad Saturday on the ride to the funeral and afterwards at the reception – I was feeling very sympathetic for anyone with hearing issues or who has to wear a hearing aid, because man, just not fun, having your hearing messed with). But so much less crazy than constantly itching.

Saturday, we went out and bought fun things, like a new garbage disposal, a kitchen faucet, a water filtration system, and gummy bears. It was fun until we dropped them off at storage and recognized that we wouldn’t be able to install any of them right now. Bummer. (Well, not the gummy bears. Those came home.) It was, however, exhausting. We also looked at rugs and toilets and water softeners. And kept all our receipts.

Another chunk of our kitchen is packed up and wiped down, and the shelving units were partly disassembled for transportation. ERIC patched holes in the walls yesterday, so tonight he’ll sand them down and I’ll patch-paint. And then vacuum, because our carpeting is starting to look bad. I want there to be as little cleaning as possible done on Friday.

I also, finally, edited my last paper and printed it out, so I’m officially done with homework. I just have to go to class this week, and I’m done. The last grade for my online class was posted, and I got a 97% in the class, which I’m proud of because that class stressed me out a great deal, and I was annoyed by the professor (which is a rather easy thing, considering you never meet in real life and your only interactions are via email or discussion board messages).

It seems a little strange that we’re moving on Friday (though it cannot get here fast enough! this has been the slowest three weeks ever, and you would have thought it would fly by), especially since we’ve had ridiculous quantities of free time. There were many, many hours of playing video games or sitting on the couch watching TV. I finished the embroidery piece I was working on and started another. I also started the second panel of the baby blanket I’m knitting, and finally frogged the ABC one that I’d give up on. If the kitchen wasn’t packed, I would have made cookies or something. It’s just crazy. But, when you consider that we’ve been packing up since last July, it makes more sense.

Hopefully this week will fly by. 5 days!