Oh lord, moving sucks so hard. It looks like a tornado hit my apartment right now.

On the up side, we drove to the Home Despot (no, that's not a typo, I just like to say it. Apparently, I'm not the only one - check out this very amusing site) last night and picked up blinds for the new apartment. It was such a pleasure to just stick them in the trunk and then go to dinner with friends. Having a car around here is totally opening up the world for us. And making life so much easier, especially with the moving. Plus, instead of paying shipping charges, we drove to U-Haul to get moving boxes, and just drove 'em home. By the way, did you know U-Haul will take back any unused boxes as long as you have a receipt? Excellent! And you can bring them to any location - which makes sense if you move cross-country or something. So, I didn't skimp on box-buying.

I am in the midst of making the cutest little baby cap for my friends Dan and Renee's new baby girl, whose name I cannot recall at the moment. I'm using the Sugar'n'Cream I got on sale from elann a few months ago. It's pink, and I charted out a row of little lavender hearts. I think I paid a buck for each ball, so this is definitely a cheap and happy little gift. It coordinates with a little sleeper I bought for her a couple of weeks ago. And I'm extra-happy because while cleaning out my desk "junk" drawer (more "thinning out" the junk than actually cleaning) I found my little sew-in labels - the ones that say "Betsy made this just for me!" on them. I knew I'd find them eventually. :-)

OK, no more fun for now. Gotta go pack some boxes. I'll finish the cap after I pack for a good while, and maybe post a picture later.

I have an ever-so-slight hangover this morning, the result of a couple of margaritas after my last day of work yesterday. I'll be fine in an hour or so, but I feel fuzzy right now. That probably has something to do with all the craziness, but definitely more to do with the tequila!

We picked up the car on Wednesday night, and it was so fun to drive back to the city rather than take the train! And I got extra-spoiled because Ryan drove me to the office Thursday so I could load the trunk with empty boxes that Edwin, the mailroom guy, was giving to me for apartment-packing. The amazing thing was we hit zero traffic and it was 15 minutes door-to-door (Brooklyn Heights to east Midtown). I could get used to that (but I won't because it ain't gonna happen often!)

I was in something of a daze yesterday. It's been so long since I left a job without being laid-off that it felt weird to prepare for the whole thing. It was so strange to wake up this morning and not have to go to work. Of course, that doesn't mean I am lying around today. Unfortunately, I have to start packing, which is not my strong suit. I know I should just get rid of a lot of stuff, but I'm so damned sentimental. That's why I have as much crap as I do already.

Oh well, Ryan's bringing the car over a little later so I can unload the boxes from yesterday and drive over to U-Haul to get the rest of the boxes I need. Then I have from today until Tuesday to finish up. We're going out to Coney Island tonight for my friend Sonia's birthday dinner, but other than that no social plans until post-move.

Stitch-n-Bitch was lots of fun last night. Most of the "regulars" were there, which made me happy, since I may not see them for a couple of weeks due to our big move next Tuesday. New friend Casey also joined, and was happy to have met so many people, even if she was crocheting rather than knitting.

But the most interesting "guest" by far was the guy on the sofa. He stumbled in when there just a few of us sitting there. He was a scruffy twenty-something guy carrying a can of Nutrament, and he took a seat on the end of the sofa furthest away from me (it's an "L"-shaped sofa), where he promptly passed out for a good hour-and-a-half, maybe even longer. There were several points at which we wondered if he had actually died there, but we saw breathing movements so it seemed OK. A little before 9pm one of the girls who works at the cafe came over and woke him up. It seemed like she might know him. He looked around in a daze, and then wandered off. As strange as it was to be knitting with some dude passed out on the sofa, it had to be stranger to be the dude waking up surrounded by knitters.

I did manage to pack a few boxes of books last night, so I have officially started packing. Ugh. Please someone tell me this will not be so bad? Five years of accumulation. I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff over the past few months, but there always seems to be more, and most of it is going to end up coming with me.

Tonight we're headed out to Long Island to pick up our new car! I am so excited I can hardly wait. I'm also happy because I remembered to bring my Moo blanket and the Synthrapol so I am going to throw those in the washing machine at my parents' house while we're there. I've been waiting for the opportunity to use their machine rather than the rough industrial machines in my apartment building. Cross your fingers that everything goes OK and I don't have to dye the darn thing purple.

Woke up at 5 a.m. and couldn't sleep again until almost 6. Had really weird dreams about working at CNN until the alarm went off at 7:30. Yeah, I'm a model of perkiness today, folks! Nothing to do here at work at the moment, which is a blessing, as I have a billion other things to do.

Ryan and I booked a mover today, for Tuesday. Van Gogh movers in Brooklyn has always intrigued me because of their wonderfully punny name and their sunflower- and iris-painted trucks. A former colleague of mine had recommended them, and they were really nice when Ryan called. Their quote came in pretty close to Oz movers, which was a recommendation from Jackie, via ECHO. Only $5 an hour more expensive. Plus they said they can combine both moves (his apartment and mine) and only take about 5-6 hours. Excellent! So, Tuesday looks like moving day.

Unfortunately that means I am going to have to do the Kate Spade sample sale a different day, which means either Jackie and Deb have to be nice and go with me another time, or I will go by myself. No biggie. Somehow moving has priority in this case. I can't believe I am going to pack up all my stuff in the next 6 days. Yipes.

Also, we're going to pick up the car tomorrow after work! Yay! I can hardly wait. We had an annoying moment yesterday when we discovered the finance guy had glossed over an extra charge for a 5-year extended warranty, and I had to go bridezilla on his ass. He tried to say he had told us that the 5-year was an extra warranty added to the cost, but oddly enough none of the three people (me, Ryan, Dad) sitting there heard the $1200 cost. Needless to say, we ditched that and are back to an OK place. It's funny, the warranty only adds a couple of bucks to the monthly payment, so you think "what the hell" but then it's like $1500 in the end with the interest, and with a reliable car, Consumer Reports says it's generally not worth it. So, with that drama over, we are back to being excited about the car.

Busy or not, I am going to Stitch-n-Bitch tonight. My friends Dan and Renee just had a baby girl over the weekend and I already bought a little sleeper outfit but want to knit a little hat to go with it. They already knew the baby was a girl and it was a scheduled C-section because she was breech, so it was slightly anticlimactic to get the message that she had arrived - is that a terrible thing to say? I'm old-fashioned, I guess - I don't want to know what it is until it pops out. "Pops" - yeah right. Doesn't that make it sound easy?

According to GoingBridal.com:



Could it be true? Am I that delightful a person?

I can't believe it. Ladies and gentlemen, our new car:



We take delivery Wednesday night. We ended up buying the 2003 brand-new, because the price difference just wasn't enough to make it worth buying either a leftover 2002 or a certified pre-owned model. The 2002s were like 500 bucks cheaper, and only available in icky colors. And the older used ones were still only around $2000 less unless you were talking about something over 5 years old with a lot of mileage. So to buy a car with that much mileage on it and not even save much money seemed silly. Ryan and I agreed, and my Dad (who came with us) did, too. So, we've got a new car, and can't wait to pick it up!

Other than that, not much news except being pissed-off at my friend Diana once more. She's been saying for weeks that she wants my sofabed, which we will not be moving into the new apartment. After telling me all week she was coming Saturday, and assuring me she really wants the sofa even though she's having trouble finding someone to help her pick it up, she bails. Apparently her new roommate decides yesterday that he wants to buy a new sofa, so he doesn't want mine. Yes, it's her apartment. But he won't help her come and get it, so there goes that.

If she had told me a week or so ago that she wasn't going to take the sofa, I would've had more time to make other arrangements. Now I am going to list that and my Somma bed on Craigs List and hope someone will want them, cheap, before the 13th. It just pisses me off that I asked her so many times if she was really taking it, and every time she said yes, until the day she was supposed to come get it. I suppose someday I will learn not to rely on her for even the smallest details. Oh yes, she's my maid of honor. Shut up, I don't want to hear it.