The packers came again and packed again and made nice piles everywhere. My things are all mixed up and lost, I know not where. I do know where the coffeemaker is, and that's all that matters.

Tomorrow is my last day at the library. I've donated a bunch of books over the past few months, so my legacy WILL go on.

Bruce found one last roll of toilet paper that the packers did NOT pack, so all is well.

Mad Hot Ballroom was so much fun! More on that later.

I excel at freaking out, blowing out of proportion and hyping it up. Many of you know this. Today was no exception.

You see, last night I was up late boxing up/setting aside things that I a) didn't want the packers to handle (bras & panties), b) was advised by the moving company to transport myself (DVDs, CDs, my meager jewelry collection, documents and banking account info, etc.), or c) needed to bring in the car (day-to-day Items to Live With such as hair product and my iBook). Everything going down to Alabamer in the cars is stashed in the spare room. I finally called it quits at 2am and went to bed stressed that there was still so much to take care of.

This morning I woke up (that's a misnomer; I didn't WAKE up, in truth, until 6.35pm when I finally had some coffee) bright and early to compete my task. Three women showed up at 8.40am to begin boxing. I frantically shoved objects into bags and piles, pulled posters and pictures down and rushed off to work, all a-flutter. All a-stressed.

Work was great! I then get home and discover the packers only stayed until 11.30 and didn't even finish packing the downstairs. They aren't coming again until Monday to pack the rest of it all. All my turmoil for naught! All my junk crammed into bags in the spare room! Disorder! Disorder!

One would hope I'd learn something here, something about the impossibility of perfection and the pointless nature of stressing over events not in my realm of control. One would hope. One can hope. Hope springs eternal, you know.

To combat getting worked up over nothing, I spent the rest of the day eating Famous Dave's BBQ and reading Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot. Fluffy fun chicklit, the perfect antidote to my agonizing. It wasn't as cliche-ridden as I feared, but I'm still not inclined to pick up The Princess Diaries any time soon. I had no idea Cabot wrote adult fiction until Boy Meets Girl appeared on the shelf at work.

One of the great things about working at a library is seeing what people check out. Nosy and superficial, but intriguing. Somewhat depressing, too, because most of what gets checked out are books I would not be caught dead reading, book snob that I am. ( Authors such as Janet Evanovich, Nora Roberts (or N.R. writing as J.D. Robb), Kristin Hannah, James Patterson, John Grisham.)

Have I shared my Grisham Idea on here before? It probably warrants repeating, even so -- it is my fervent belief that Mr. John Grisham should do the world a favor, saving a few trees along the way, and limit his writing to that of the screenplay sort.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to fit in a viewing of Mad Hot Ballroom, playing at Omaha's only indy theatre, the Dundee.

And I LOVED Garden State. Sigh.

A few days ago I picked this crate up, just after posting a request on Freecycle.org. I suppose I could have made do with something like this but that would make driving difficult.

Keaton likes his box...now. I don't know what sort of affection he'll maintain after spending hours in the car with the door closed. He hates riding in the car. He yowls. I decided not to drug him up, though, and the vet said to feed him in the evenings.

Must start packing.

Busy, tired, stressed and anxious, so I am going to the cool
downstairs regions of the house to watch Garden State while I eat Java
Chip ice cream and finish a bottle of Pete's Wicked Ale.

People coming Saturday instead of Monday to pack things up. Yikes.

Things are now in motion for Alabama.

Bruce flew back Saturday morning, calling just after I got to work; those four hours dragged by. His body clock is still off and because my work schedule was accomodating, I got used to pulling college hours, except instead of staying up late writing papers, I watched movies until 2 or 3am. This means that Bruce is about ready to get up when I'm set to go to bed.

I'm so glad he is back.

Yesterday we saw Batman Begins -- excellent stuff, that. And I stayed up to watch Cold Comfort Farm (brilliant favorite I finally got around to buying on eBay) and Nausicaa (very very very good anime). All recommended.

Today a man came to look at everything in the house to estimate how many boxes the packers would need for the move. They'll start a week from today...this is going to fly by. Then we have to separate all the items we'll drive down ourselves (cat, plants, etc.) (still not sure what to do about Bet Li). My time in Nebraska is down to a scattering of days.

I'd be excited if I wasn't so concerned about the job situation. Yark.

I saw a beautiful red-headed woodpecker in the backyard yesterday.

Helpful or just really cool? liveplasma music, movies, search engine and discovery engine

And corset piercing....
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Photo Gallery (New Summer Trends) Ouch. But that looks awesome.

Sorry for the lack of real posts.

Mirrormask, another beaut from Mr. Gaiman with the additional brilliance of Dave McKean and the Jim Henson Company.

30 September 2005.

So many things to look forward to.

Mr. Charlie, Bruce's agent for house-buying in Alabama, contacted the residents and they DO have my mail (all or some, I know not) and Mr. Charlie will be picking it up to-morrow to Fed-Ex to me!

He mentioned overnighting it, which is horribly expensive, I imagine...I should tell him 2-day is fine for me.

Of course, I do have Bruce's checkbook.

Hm.

Raped, Kidnapped and Silenced (NYT) in Pakistan.

Look also also at the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Women and the Mercy Corps support site, incidentally based in Portland, Oregon.

Found this, on the right, in the backyard yesterday.

I put it out by the sidewalk. We'll see if someone claims it.

Howl's Moving Castle is out today in selected cities. This does not include Omaha, so I'm out of luck, but soon soon soon.

(The movie is based - successfully, says author Diana Wynne Jones - on one of my favorite books and people have been raving about the film.) (I hope I'll be able to enjoy the movie for what it is and NOT get picky about how it is different from the book. For starters, the castle in the book does NOT look like the one on the site.)

If you had recently sold your house and were moving out of it within a few weeks, and then strange piles of mail started showing up (with yellow change-of-address labels) for someone else, would you keep it, thinking it must belong to the new residents, or would you return it to the sender?

What would you do?
What would you do?

I ask because I apparently need practice filling out forms. Change-of-address forms, to be specific. You see, I noticed the quantity of my mail arriving daily was shrinking. Down to nothing, actually, and I was troubled. Many things were expected in the mail by myself -- a card from Bruce for our two-year anniversary, a form from my college in Oregon necessary for Alabama teacher certification, three Netflix DVDs, a DVD and a CD I bought off eBay, a coupon for my Perkins college loan, and so forth. I was not missing the credit card offers, but I still want my mail.

This morning I called the PO and asked what the deal was. They'd been forwarding my mail to Alabama since June 2nd, not JULY 2nd, like I swear I put on the form. Discovery of this fact led directly to my running around the house cursing violently and scaring the cat. I hate losing my stuff.

Cursing is pointless unless action follows, so after drying the tears of anger from my eyes, I thought to call Bruce's very-Southern-gentleman real estate agent and beg for some assistance. I left a message (took me three tries because the thing kept beeping me, saying my time was up) and he called back, saying he'd contact the family and ask them not to return my stuff AND would pick up my mail himself (if they'd kept it) and send it to me here. Wow!

That made me feel better and I just changed my address online. This means, I think, that my mail will come to Nebraska, be re-routed to Alabama, and then sent back to Nebraska. Inefficient, but that's the only way about it. Maybe I should go to the PO and double-check.

What a mess.

Here, in all her glory, is the last photo I snapped of Susie in Nebraska ...hopefully the last photo I'll ever take of her in the state. Hopefully those are not famous last words. Hell, she's welcome to return to Benraska (that's a typo worth keeping) any time; I'm just looking forward to moving on. Moving out, notably. Towards a coastal region, ideally.

Anyhow, I love this shot. Love the coffeeshop it was taken in, too. Maybe I'd have liked living in Lincoln better than Omaha, I don't know.

Interesting how most of my Susie photos involve consumption of food and/or drink...

Lunch at Famous Dave's! Had the ribs, gotta have the ribs.

Last year, Susie gifted our parents with a one-month Netflix account for Christmas and they didn't use it - reasons are vague and rather convoluted, but they are there. I'm not going into them; I can't claim to understand them.

Susie already has Netflix, so I asked if she'd give me the account code because I have a lot of time on my hands and who likes to see free movies go to waste? Who? Not I! Not me!

So she kindly brought the little piece of paper with her last week (parents sent her out in a gesture of pity with Bruce being gone) and I'm all signed up! Yay!

There's a FRIENDS thingie on Netflix where you can see what your FRIENDS are watching and recommending and wishing they'd never bothered to watch. Are you on Netflix? Do you want to be FRIENDS with me?

No time for further groveling -- I have to go spend the day with Summer Reading Program Children, including 16 teenagers who are expecting a non-sucky Teen Program tonight.

...only three more weeks, three more weeks.

- I've registered a del.icio.us account. I use computers other than my own often enough that it is advantageous to be able to access my bookmarked sites on the web. This will also keep me from emailing sites to myself when I'm at work.

Susie is visiting so I probably won't be posting daily for a little bit. But if you don't hear from me for multiple days, she's done me grievous harm. Please send help.

Need an escape from the Starbucks experience?

Check the Delocator for non-corporate coffeeshops & cafes near you -- or add your favorite local spots, like I did.