Life in Beta

I’ve been a bit absent lately, haven’t I? I’ve been running behind this whole month.The truth is, I’ve been so focused on work — both my day job and my freelance projects – that everything else fell by the wayside for a while, and the holidays just plain snuck up on me at the last second!

I did finish my Christmas shopping and I can proudly say I’m completely done with wrapping too, thanks to my mega-awesome wrapping station that I set up in the basement this year.

(Have I mentioned how much I love living in a place that has a basement again?! Also — folding cutting tables for sewing are the best thing ever. Buy one. Now.)

I really hope I’m not the only one who is feeling behind this year!

YES, I did it again. Thursday morning I jumped on a plane to Erie. Thankfully I got out of Nashville right before a big storm and into Erie in between the major snowfall. Talk about luck!

The downside: I spent my whole trip miserable with a sinus infection/tonsillitis, taking giant horse-pills (some kick-butt antibiotics and Mucinex DM). Needless to say, that prevented me from visiting with my grandmother (who has emphysema and can’t risk that kind of illness). I was very disappointed about that.

I did get to visit other friends and family though. Ate at a few of my favorite restaurants.

I gave in and got my iPhone. I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner.

I love this thing.

I have barely put it down since I got it. Can’t believe I didn’t give in and get one sooner. I haven’t had any problems so far with the service in Erie, Nashville, or on the drive in between. I’ve been busy tweeting, FourSquare-ing, and Gowalla-ing from my phone. (‘Cause I’m a geek like that.) If you’re on either/any of those sites, connect with me.

This week my mother is staying with me (actually for a week or two, not sure yet…) to work on cleaning and organizing the house so that we can put it up for sale.

I’m telling myself that it is time to downsize immensely. I really long to have simplicity in my life, but I’m a major failure at that. There’s a huge part of me that wants to just go through my stuff like a whirlwind and throw out about 80-90% of it. One area I’m planning on paring down hugely is my arts and crafts supplies. Any more, I mostly just knit; I haven’t done much sewing, painting, scrapbooking, etc. in a long, long time. I’m thinking I can give away/donate/throw out almost everything from that genre of stuff. I’m also getting rid of my aquarium (my friend Cyndi said she’d take it) and some other stuff like that.

I’m just hoping I can keep that attitude and momentum and not get sucked in my sentimental stuff. I need the Clean House gang to come kick my ass–where the heck is Niecy Nash when you need her!?

I’m packing. (For reals this time, ya’ll!)

Check it out. I even made my bed … so that I could then cover it in crap and sort through it all to figure out what I’m packing.

But… I HAVE A SYSTEM. Really. I know it doesn’t appear to the be the case, but I assure you that I know what I’m doing. It’s really complicated and involves light refraction and plumb-bobs.  Lots of physics too. You wouldn’t understand.

(Incidentally, how freakin’ cool is the word plumb-bob? Kind of tickles when you say it.)

My plan is to get everything packed tonight and either loaded into the car, or piled up next to the door ready to go out first thing in the morning. Normally when I drive home to Pennsylvania, I leave at 7 AM. That enables me to hit all the major cities that I go through (Louisville, Cincinnati and Columbus) at non-rush hour times. However, this time I’m not traveling on a weekday, so that doesn’t really matter. So IF I can get my lazy arse out of bed earlier, I may leave at 6 AM or so.

… Not to mention, that gets me into the land of ice and snow while it is still daylight.

I will be on the road all day tomorrow: 611 miles, 10 (ish) hours. If you wanna keep up with my progress, follow me on Twitter.

Um… and if ya’ll have any, ya know, connections… if you could hook me up with dry, non-icy roads, that would be killer. Thanks!