I moved, I worked... and I came home!

Yeah, you read that right - I moved, I worked... and I came home.

Believe me, I never expected to drive all the way down there, work one day, and leave for home less than 24 hrs from when I arrived! But trust me, it was one of the best decisions I've made in 2005. ;)

All signs pointed to staying in Michigan - including the heavy snow I was greeted with on Tuesday morning, forcing all freeway traffic to one or two slippery lanes, crawling along at 30 mph. The snow morphed into freezing rain somewhere in Ohio, but the clouds weren't done with me just yet! It poured nearly all the way down through Virginia or North Carolina. Overall, I think the weather cost me an extra 2 hours.

 Thank you, Mother Nature

I spent my one day of employment raking pine needles and cutting down scrub oak within a 15 ft. radius of longleaf pine trees that had endangered woodpeckers in them.

Later that afternoon, I went into town to check voicemail and email and communicate with the outside world. Got some crazy news and I HAD to go home. I don't want to write down why I had to leave, but we'll just say it was entirely necessary and a very good decision!!

Left back for MI that night, but it was late enough that I knew I'd have to stop for the evening. So I call up my friend in Virginia out of nowhere and just ask him "What are you doing at 1 am tonite??" "Umm, drinking beer around my bonfire maybe? Why what's up??" And hence, I spent the night in Blacksburg, road weary and a bit flustered from the day's events, and passed out in the basement. I doubt he reads this, but Matt I promise one of these days, we'll sit down for longer than a few minutes when we're both healthy and not exhausted!

So began - and ended - my South Carolina adventure. Regrets? None. Just happy to be home where I belong right now!!

 

Wilbur my Navi-turtle, somewhere in Virginia? BTW, the weather was about 72 degrees down there.

One more for good measure...

Going away dinner at Papa Vinos!

Tired! Not done packing! 2-4" of snow tonite! Waking up in 5 hrs!

Ugh!

Counting down...

I've spent my last weekend day in Michigan sleeping, thinking about packing, pretending to pack, avoiding packing, chatting with people, and taking lots of painkillers to dull the after-effects of excruciatingly wonderful snowboarding this weekend.

Procrastination at it's finest. :)

Actually, considering we got home last night around 3:30 am, exhausted and sore, and I still managed to wake up before noon is amazing to me. Of course, I did take another nap this afternoon... but I've spent hours since then getting rid of old clothes to give to charity, recycling four grocery bags full of paper, sorting out boxes I haven't touched since college... Moving may be a pain, but at least I get a chance to "simplify my life" or whatever Zen enlightenment I might get out of eliminating some of my material possessions.

So, since I'm trying to pack, I found time to search flight prices from Detroit (DTW)to South Carolina. :) There are 3 airports that one could fly into, and so far I've found some fantastic fares. (Hoorah for alliteration!) $153 round trip is the cheapest. Here are the airport abbreviations to make it even EASIER for ya'll to look up fares to visit me!
Charlotte, NC - CLT
Columbia, SC - CAE
Myrtle Beach, SC - MYR

While cleaning my room, I found all my old painting supplies. Yes, once upon a time I was an aspiring artist. :) I felt guity for not having touched a paintbrush in over a year, especially considering I was in the middle of a painting of some wolves that was turning out very well... until I stopped working on it. This is what happens when you have too many hobbies!

Our dog Wilson knows somethings going on. Every time I move or leave for a long period of time, he gives me this look... like he knows that I'm leaving him, and he's trying to understand why I am going. I'm not kidding at all, either. Everybody in the family notices he acts a little weird... just follows me arround, then stands in front of me and stares at me. Sometimes he nudges me, but he's not begging. My mom says it's because he heard her telling people on the phone. :) For some reason, it's really hard to look him in the eye and not feel guilty about leaving him!

Wilbur the turtle will be my travel companion. How silly will that look, a turtle in a box as my navigator. I don't think he's as distressed as Wilson, because frankly Wilbur isn't that smart and runs into the glass of his aquarium all the time. ;)

This weekend was fantastic and I'm glad I got to have one last romp in the hills with my snowboard and some good friends. We trucked up to Boyne Friday night and spent all day tearing it up on Saturday. I can now say I am Master of the Easy Hill! The guys prompted me to try a black diamond or two... and it scared the crap out of me. I made it down all right - if you consider sliding down on your ass "all right". I need to be Master of the Little Bit Harder Hill before I try that again!

Anyway, back to cleaning. Here's a few funny pictures from our hotel room. My batteries died (again) so there's not much to show but some debauchery on the bed.

And so ends probably my last entry from Michigan for a while!

 

Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it

EVERY TIME I finally decide to give up all hope of actually getting into Montana State, that professor that keeps telling me to hold on, she has to find funding, writes me to rekindle the possibility. What a sick game to play with my mind! :) So once again, after not speaking with her since October, she said that it might finally happen! Operative word is "might", of course, but it could happen as soon as April. The project wouldn't be my first choice of topics - chemistry of soil or something in wetlands, lots of microscope work - it would be sooo nice to go back to school, back into my "real" field, and NOT move for at least two years. Yeah, the nomadic Lisa is yearning for at least a sliver of solidarity in her always-changing life. Not to say fire isn't awesome and that I'm not excited to lace up those boots again, but that annoying intellectual side of me just won't DIE! and insists that I make use of it. Plus, I'd like to unpack my things from these unsightly boxes and KEEP them out for longer than 5 months. ;)

More pictures

I know, it's been all pictures lately... but people like to see pictures. Anyway, I hope to have stuff to write about again soon, moving to South Carolina and all. ;)

Here's some from when Brian was back in town, and also from another party Jeff had. Also a few pics from hanging out with Brynn, Casey, Kirk and Heather, as well as pics of Steve's house. Good times!