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… is when I need to have moved out by!  Yikes!

Luckily about 95% of my stuff has been moved, either to storage or in my car to travel around with me for the next few days.  However, there is still cleaning to be done.  MUUUCH cleaning to be done.

I have spent the last six hours tackling to kitchen, and it still looks bad.  Ugh.  I’ve heard Holton is notorious for refusing to give back most or even all of their security deposits, so I’m really tempted to say ‘fuck it’ and just leave as-is.  But, that would be irresponsible *sigh*.  So I guess it is more bleach for me…

Seriously though.  My new place better be worth it!

Our landlord is having the town homes we’re moving into painted fresh this year (drat!), so he said we couldn’t paint them our own colors and paint them back at the end of our lease.  So, I’ve been forced to look into options for decorating besides painting my own whirlwind of a mural on my bedroom walls.

Today I stumbled across muralsyourway.com, a site that specializes in giant canvas or vinyl murals that you can put up on the walls of your house.  I think this is what I want to do to my room.  At $250 for 6ft by 4ft they’re pretty expensive, but I think it would be worth it, especially to go to sleep under a starry night, or wake up every morning under god’s fingertips.

… is exactly what Batman:  The Dark Knight should be called.  Seriously, Heath Ledger stole the show.  The first time I saw it I spent most of the movie trying to find his real face beneath his Joker persona.  He gave me chills.

Saw it for the second time yesterday.  If you haven’t seen it yet, what the hell are you doing?!  Go!  Right now!

Alternate title:  PANIC!

So it just hit me that I have to move in 2 weeks.  Now, I’m pretty much just moving the stuff in my room and two barstools, a tv stand and a tv, so it’s not like I’m moving an entire house or anything, but considering how much is going to be jam-packed into the next two weeks I really need to get started.  Here’s my (sample?) schedule:

Thurs 17 - Sun 20 : Myrtle Kombat - a voyage to North Myrtle Beach with a dozen awesome buddies

Wed 23/Thur 24 : most likely my last day at ON!  Thank GOD!

Fri 25 - Sun 27 : Bele Cher in Ashevegas, hell yeah!

Tues 29 : Move out of apartment by 10 AM!  yikes!  Go to Greenville

Thurs 31 or Fri 1 : Return from Greenville and move in to new house (NOT apartment, holy potatoes!  We’ve got one half of a town home in Vilas )

Sat 2 : Raleigh for KELLY’S WEDDING!  Shit, I still can’t believe she’s getting married.  We’re all getting so old…

Fri 8 : MY 21ST BIRTHDAY!    Most likely will be spent binge drinking.  Oh, the folly of youth!

So, needless to say, the next few weeks are going to be very very very very very very very very very busy.  Hence why I have spent a few hours today packing.  I have decided I have too much shit.

On Wednesday, I put in my two weeks notice at my current job.  Why?

Well, several reasons.  The main one being that I hate it.  I being forced to be friendly, I hate customers getting mad at me because the shirt they thought was on sale is actually full price, I hate that my managers place more importance upon getting people to sign up for a credit card that not only has a ridiculously high interest rate and dangerous overage and late fees, but is also completely unnecessary and only helps to enlarge our nation’s debt.  I hate taking orders from people who I will never meet, who have never actually worked in a store and who get my managers, and then subsequently me, in trouble when the paper plan doesn’t pan out in real life.  I hate encouraging wasteful spending on clothes people don’t need and are probably just buying to fill the void the feel inside of themselves because of the lack of real values or culture in our country and our lives.

I hate not being able to support my best friends in the major milestones of their lives because I have to fold jeans and t-shirts.

I hate working ten days in a row, open to close to open to close.

So, I quit.

No, I don’t have another one lined up.  No, I’m not really sure how stable my finances will be the next two months or so.  Do I have enough for the time being?  Sure.  Will I get another job?  Probably, but not soon.  I am constantly complaining about wasting my youth, when the reality is I never really gave myself the chance to utilize it.  So, for the month before school starts again, I am off.  What will I do?  Where will I go?  I don’t know yet.  Maybe the beach.  Maybe Atlanta.  Maybe no further than Hickory.  Regardless, I will, at least for a short while, no longer have to miss the trip to the falls because of work, or not go to the party, or miss out on the tiny little moments that make life worth living.

For the first time in a long time, I am jumping and trusting that the universe will catch me.  It may not seem like a lot to you, but it feels like baby steps towards a confident, happy, more decisive self.  A better self.

So there.

I’ve been baking up a storm lately — 2 to 3 times a week, hooray!  Baking is one of my all time favorite things to do.  Lately, I had a hankering for some sweet biscuits.

When I was younger, my brother and I would visit my grandmother in the scenic Michigan countryside (ha ha).  Really though, they had a big cornfield, flower garden, squash, and a bunch of woods in which to ramble about.  The best memories I have from my childhood generally involve visiting my grandma and what she would feed us.  She made the best strawberry shortcake, with these really crumbly biscuits (because everyone knows real shortcake is made with biscuits and not cake).  I’ve been waxing nostalgic lately, and tried replicating her biscuits.  This is what I came up with:

Delicious, from scratch sweet biscuits

I ended up with a pretty awesome homemade biscuit, very sweet, just the way I love all my baked goods, ha ha.  Not only the perfect base for strawberry shortcake, but also a delicious and easy breakfast alternative.

Homemade Sweet Biscuits

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup milk

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.  Mix all that hoopla together, bake for 8-12 minutes.  Yum!

fire show 1, originally uploaded by summerthyme.

Uploaded a few fireworks pictures that came out really neat.

Delivery Guy, originally uploaded by St-Even.

A scant one month until I move into my new place! AAHHH! I feel like there is so much to do before then, and I know time will swiftly and surely be pulled out from under me like so many ornate Turkish rugs, ha ha ha. So, in true form to my very slightly OCD self, I need to make a list!

SORT

1. Books. take out all the ones except for the ones I really really love.

2. Clothes. Sort out all around undesirables, go-to thrifters, and potential eBay auctions.

3. The Craft Haul. Get together all the crafty stuff I intend on keeping (paints, canvas, sewing stuff, beads, etc.) and get together all the stuff I DON’T intend on keeping (most likely my paper craft stuff, ATC supplies, etc. Just don’t do them enough to justify keeping ALL my supplies).

4. Paper Products. Sort through all my old bills, receipts, letters, notebooks, etc. Remind myself it is not necessary to keep that Panera receipt; the purchase showed up on my online banking anyway. Throw out everything superfluous.

Remember, “If it’s not an absolute YES, it’s a NO.” ( - Cheryl Richardson)

PURGE

1. Books. Send them back to original owners, give to friends, freecycle/thrift.

2. Clothes. Trash, freecycle/thrift, or eBay as deemed appropriate.

3. The Craft Haul. Organize supplies for possible sale in etsy shop (if time allows), or get good karma by offering them as freebies here or on craftster (anyone need any neat printed paper? leave a comment and I’ll send you some).

4. Paper Products. Throw out all the crap.

PACK

Pretty self explanatory, I imagine.

So, for around $459.00, via Amtrak, I can get an unlimited rail pass for the eastern US.  The pass is labeled “East Rail,” but goes as far west as New Mexico and Montana, and includes the entirety of the east coast and New England areas.  The pass would be good for 30 days.

I think this may be my big college graduation present for myself.

Cities include Boston, Philly, NY, DC, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, Dallas, Little Rock, Austin, Houston, New Orleans,  El Paso, Albuquerque, Denver, Atlanta, Orlando, and Miami.  Very few of which I’ve ever been to in my life, along with a whole host of smaller cities smattered in between.

It’s recommended on the site that you reserve your seats in as far in advance as much as possible, but since I probably wouldn’t have a whole set of destinations set in stone, I probably wouldn’t worry about that.  Just take what’s open — after all, isn’t that what exploration is all about?

Hmmm… something to ponder…