New Job, New City, New Life

Well, here we go.

I've been on the verge of tears more times than I can count this week. Transitioning is not something I do well. I'll get through it, I always do... but damn. This is a lot.

Tomorrow morning, I leave Chicago. Again. I've packed up all my stuff, said goodbye in one form or another to almost everyone, find myself disappointed in all the things I didn't get to do and people I didn't get to see (or didn't get to see more than once) while I was here. I love this city. I love everything about it. Love the way I feel about myself when I'm here. To all of the amazing people I have here, I've got to tell you -- I would not be who I am today if any one of you hadn't come into my life, and for what you've done for me over these last six months, thank you will never be enough. I'll be back to visit regularly, and back for good just as soon as I can.

On Wednesday, I will fly to Austin to get all of my melted and semi-liquid belongings out of storage and bring them to Ohio. Yeah, not looking forward to that part so much. And there again, I will have one more round of goodbyes. In January I didn't really think I was going to be back for any length of time, and then in May it looked like I might, and now it's a certainty that I won't -- I'll spend less than 48 hours there. But for all of those ups and downs, I have once again had wonderful people who have loved and supported me through it all. You guys know that in my heart, I never really fully felt at home in Texas, but you opened your hearts and your homes to me anyway. It will not be difficult at all to leave the city, but it's very hard to know that I will be living so far away from you indefinitely.

So, by this time next week, I will be in Columbus, and about to embark on a whole new life, learn a new city, work at a new job where all of my past experience doesn't really count for squat. Starting over, this is. At MY age. Whose idea was this, anyway? Oh, yeah, it was mine...

Ya know, my mother has called me out on more than one occasion for wanting to know what to expect, wanting to know what to do, wanting to know how I'll react in a situation before I even walk into the room. She's my mother, it's not like I can argue the point (although I DO hate it when she's right about shit like that). I can't know any of that ahead of time here, and the idea of, "Holy shit, somebody has actually hired me to do this job, to be this person," is a bit daunting, to say the least. Yes, I know I have a Master's degree. I know that, in there somewhere, my brain has absorbed a lot of information over the past three years. I know that ultimately, I'll not only do well, but love what I'm doing just as I have loved learning about it.

But tomorrow, I begin to leave behind everything I already know and am comfortable with.

It's a tad scary.

Ya Got Me

OK, OK...

I've received this in e-mail form a couple of times and never responded to it, mainly because I couldn't come up with a single word for the people who sent it to me. But, what goes around comes around, so...

Describe me in a single word. And I'll work on e-mailing those other people back... (Most of the friends on the right side of the page are in on this too, so if you know them, describe them, too.)

Should be interesting...

A Random and Incomplete List

Wandered about the Old Town Art Fair this afternoon at Zes's behest... and in amongst the jewelry, the pottery, and the stuff that I couldn't believe Zes couldn't even look at, much less photograph to say, "Look at this CRAP!" there were some lovely photographs that a guy took as he obviously spent many months wandering about Italy and France. Of course, there was a huge shot that I coveted of Provence, a myriad of lovely greens and purples that immediately made me go, "I wanna go there..."

So, in the midst of evaluating all the other art in terms of its Provencity (pronounced "proh-VAUGHN-sih-TAY"), I began rattling off a list of places where I have never been that I want to see before I die. (Hey, I've accomplished pretty much everything else I've wanted to in my life, unless you're gonna hold me to that "having a job" thing!) It was decided that I probably should write such a list down, so here it is, in no particular order:

1. St. Petersburg (Russia, not Florida)
2. San Francisco
3. Budapest
4. Vancouver, BC
5. Alaska
6. Prague
7. Switzerland
8. Italy
9. Paris (and most likely Provence, since I'm there)
10. China
11. Scotland
12. Amsterdam
13. Macchu Picchu
14. Australia
15. Egypt
16. Jerusalem

So, there ya go. This is not a complete and final list by any means, and certainly doesn't account for places I've already been and want to return to, but... it's my game plan for the next umpteen years. Anybody who's interested in any of these sites is welcome to come along -- just lemme know where you wanna go, and I'll let you know when I'm planning a trip there.

On a completely different note, I pulled my hair back today to avoid any sunshine-walking sweaty neck difficulties, and believe, much to my dismay, that the gray is evolving from the way cool streak or two to a more generalized ickiness. And me with no fundage for beauty maintenance, dammit. Whaddaya think?

What are the Odds??

In her usual Sunday morning check-in, El Bee informed La Cabeza Grande today that, due to having hit the Pick 3 numbers not once but twice this week, there was an undisclosed surplus of pin money in her kitty. Since everybody knows that not only is luck genetic, but these things always happen in threes as well, The Head and I decided that we were feeling decidedly lucky ourselves.

LaCa: There's a couple of different ways to play that increase your chances...
Sister M: Yeah, there's a straight and a box and a 3-way... I'm not sure what's what, though. Gee, maybe that explains my dating difficulties, too...

We were two intelligent women in need of more information, so we did what any red-blooded American females would do -- we got on the web. After poring through the charts and graphs that were so nobly provided by the Illinois State Lottery Commission (where we were also encouraged to Have Fun! Play Responsibly!), we calculated what would provide us the greatest chances of winning with the smallest outlay of cash, selected our "significant" numbers, reviewed the correct terminology, and wrote it all down.

Since I was a) already dressed and b) headed to the corner gas station anyway to support one of my less endearing habits that we're not even going to discuss now, I was the designated purchaser of our Tickets of Great Fortune. Note paper and cash in hand, I went around the corner and approached the window, where I discovered the major flaw in the design of the lottery commission's web site: although it provided me with the appropriate terminology for our Great Master Plan, it failed miserably in translating it into "Rapid Mumblings of Girl Behind Bulletproof Glass-ese."

Girl Behind Glass: You want da fitty cent play, or da dolla play?
Sister M: Erm... the dollar play. For the six-way combo. And this one's a quick pick.
GBG: You want da fi' dolla play on dat?
Sister M: Uh... I... guess so... it just called it the six-way combo.
GBG: OK, den. Dat's sisty-fow dollas.
Sister M: Uh... no, then that's not the one I want. They're supposed to be six dollars each.
GBG: Oh, OK. Dat not the fi' dolla play, den. Dis yo' firs' time?
Sister M: (resisting the urge to break into her best West Texas accent and say, "It shore nuff is, ma'am, and I rightly do 'preciate you heppin' me a-out...") Um... yeah.

So, I sure as hell hope those numbers at least give us a little sumpin' sumpin'... cuz, ya know... otherwise I'll have wasted my virginity and all...

What the Hell Happened?

Holy crap -- I've only got 28 of the top 100 albums of all time! (Well, according to the Brits, anyway...) I counted it if I have it in any form -- vinyl, cassette, CD, or MP3. I'll just have to console myself with the fact that there are some on here that I just haven't gotten yet, and I have bits and pieces of several others...

Oh, and... no Police? No Robbie Williams??? This is the BRITS doing the voting here! Damn, I thought the Brits were all over Robbie Williams....

I need to go shopping -- how about you?

01. Definitely Maybe, Oasis
02. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, The Beatles
03. Revolver, The Beatles
04. OK Computer, Radiohead
05. (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis
06. Nevermind, Nirvana
07. The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses
08. Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd
09. The Queen Is Dead, Smiths
10. The Bends, Radiohead
11. The Joshua Tree, U2
12. London Calling, The Clash
13. The Beatles (The White Album), The Beatles
14. Abbey Road, The Beatles
15. Up The Bracket, The Libertines
16. Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols
17. Four Symbols (Led Zeppelin IV), Led Zeppelin
18. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, David Bowie
19. A Night At The Opera, Queen
20. Is This It, The Strokes
21. Hot Fuss, The Killers
22. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
23. Grace, Jeff Buckley
24. The Holy Bible, Manic Street Preachers
25. Bat Out Of Hell, MeatLoaf
26. Appetite For Destruction, Guns N' Roses
27. Employment, Kaiser Chiefs
28. Rubber Soul, The Beatles
29. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
30. The Libertines, The Libertines
31. Urban Hymns, The Verve
32. American Idiot, Green Day
33. A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Coldplay
34. Parklife, Blur
35. Thriller, Michael Jackson
36. The Wall, Pink Floyd
37. Automatic For The People, R.E.M.
38. Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand
39. Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield
40. Achtung Baby, U2
41. Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd
42. Exile On Main Street, The Rolling Stones
43. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel
44. Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin
45. Parallel Lines, Blondie
46. Brothers In Arms, Dire Straits
47. Blood On The Tracks, Bob Dylan
48. Hunky Dory, David Bowie
49. X&Y, Coldplay
50. Who's Next, The Who
51. Hopes And Fears, Keane
52. Parachutes, Coldplay
53. Arrival, Abba
54. Different Class, Pulp
55. The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground
56. Forever Changes, Love
57. What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
58. Let It Bleed, The Rolling Stones
59. Elephant, The White Stripes
60. Doolittle, Pixies
61. Absolution, Muse
62. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John
63. Sheer Heart Attack, Queen
64. Come On Over, Shania Twain
65. Sign 'o' The Times, Prince
66. Ten, Pearl Jam
67. Kasabian, Kasabian
68. Dookie, Green Day
69. Origin Of Symmetry, Muse
70. Hounds Of Love, Kate Bush
71. Blonde On Blonde, Bob Dylan
72. All Mod Cons, The Jam
73. Blue, Joni Mitchell
74. White Blood Cells, The White Stripes
75. Dog Man Star, Suede
76. Metallica (the Black Album), Metallica
77. Dare!, Human League
78. Closer, Joy Division
79. In Utero, Nirvana
80. Back In Black, AC/DC
81. Funeral, Arcade Fire
82. Up All Night, Razorlight
83. Ray Of Light, Madonna
84. Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen
85. Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin
86. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, Arctic Monkeys
87. A Day At The Races, Queen
88. The Lexicon Of Love, ABC
89. Spice, Spice Girls
90. Violator, Depeche Mode
91. Final Straw, Snow Patrol
92. Electric Warrior, T. Rex
93. Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette
94. Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division
95. Kid A, Radiohead
96. Out Of The Blue, Electric Light Orchestra
97. The Smiths, The Smiths
98. Electric Ladyland, Jimi Hendrix
99. Rage Against The Machine, Rage Against The Machine
100. Hotel California, Eagles