Christmas!

What an awesome Christmas!  Anna and Mitch came to visit and brought all the younguns.  It was so nice to see them and spend time together.  They are in town for a few more days and have hopefully recovered from the Christmas Eve chili I gave them.  Emily and I woke up and had some coffee and exchanged some small gifts (well, a cast iron skillet isn't really small!) and just hung out with the animals.  Emily made her famous crock pot bbq pulled pork and it was delicious.  We have decided to become health food nuts after such a meat filled christmas.  Now to get ready to move.

Nice Day

I met up with a friend of mine, Mr. Mattford, today to have a cup of coffee.  For whatever reason we haven't seen each other in a while.  That kind of sucked.  So it was nice to catch up.  We had coffee at Coffeeology and then he accompanied me to Maya to sell some books.  I've been trying to downsize before the move.  We were there for a bit and then were met by Emily and Nataly as they got off work.  The four of us decided that it was a good time for dinner/breakfast at Best Diner.  After gorging we all went our separate ways.  I got home and struggled with a stupid D&D story I'm working on. I was distracted by the facebook, seeing that the keyboard player for the Mantras was jamming at sessions. Emily and I went to see them and work on crafts and write.  She forgot crafting stuff, and my computer decided not to work, so instead we had a cherry latte, and a Sacred Cow chai milk stout (very tasty).  The end.  Tomorrow is also going to be fun, but I'm not sure what will happen yet.

More Fortunes

I spent the whole day packing for the move.  Sorting and trashing, packing and stacking.  It was quite boring.  Only large amounts of coffee and a La Bamba dinner helped me make it through the day.  I keep coming across these fortune cookies, and I'm gonna keep putting them up!

"Two important decisions will be made by you soon."

"Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness."

"When you awaken tomorrow, solutions to your problems will become clear."

Sooo.  The first one I have no idea about.  I totes agree with the second one.  And hopefully the third will be true.  That's it.

Some Fortunes

Emily and I have been packing up and getting ready for move/yard sale the past few days.  We haven't decided on the house yet, but we are leaning toward the less expensive one.  Part of that decision is really trying to pare down.  It's super fun.  I ran across a bunch of fortune cookie fortunes that I had saved in a moleskin for some unknown reason and wanted to share them with you:

"A thing of great beauty will bring you great joy."

"You will spend old age in comfort and material wealth."

"Half of being smart is knowing what you are dumb about."

"You find beauty in ordinary things, do not lose this ability."

"Good timber does not grow with ease; the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees."

"Good things are being said about you."

"Disregard last fortune."

Take what you want from it.  I love the little buggers.  I asked Emily if she had anything to say about moving and she replied, "AAAAACCCKKKK!!!!."

House Hunting

Emily and I drove down to Hartsville today to look for houses.  We saw some nice ones and some REALLY skeezy ones.  It basically boiled down to two houses:  One is really nice, and would be really comfortable to live in but is at the top of our price range.  If we got the nicer house we would need to try and find another car at some point because of distance, and it would limit our money for doing other things.  BUT. -It was VERY nice.  For the price I don't think you could beat it, and it had an amazing kitchen.  The second house is a LOT cheaper, is basically across the street from Emily's library and not really that nice.  There is old carpet and it just looks rough.  The neighborhood is nice, but its really ugly (though livable).  The bonus here is that we could keep just one car, work on paying off debt, put money towards the traveling that we want to do, save money for when/if we procreate, and it's very easy to bike to downtown (where I would try to find a job).  We are a little exhausted with thinking about it, but hopefully we will come to a conclusion soon.  If anyone has any thoughts feel free to comment!

Driving and Dead

Took Emily's mom to the DMV today to get her license plate renewed and pay off back taxes on her car.  Listened to a lot of dead.  It's funny because I feel like the Dave Picks series just started bc I can still listen to the first edition over and over, but really they came out when I was in China!  It feels like we just got back, but really it has been years.  I'm ready to make a new move.  Tomorrow Emily and I are going to Hartsville to look for houses and I'm really excited about it.  It seems promising.  Emily got me some nice Blue Moon beer too.  She's a sweetheart.

Ugh. Starting Over.

So.  Life is change, but I'm bringing this back.  Or at least I'm going to try to.  I used to write blogs for this thing all of the time, but once I got back from China it just lost its appeal.  I didn't even keep up with my booklist, which I'd done for YEARS!  I've gutted the old posts and plan on doing more with this.  Hopefully I will have some good updates soon.

I don't work at Starbucks anymore.  I spent over a decade with that company, but circumstances made it necessary for me to start helping take care of my mother in law.  She's doing well now, and soon Emily and I will be moving to Hartsville, SC.  I've grown to feel like a true NC resident and I'm not sure I'm prepared for this move.  Surprisingly I'm really excited about it.  I think it's time for a pseudo new start and new horizons. 

So here goes.