Hi Everybody! Hi Dr. Nick!

[kelleah]

Okay, I think I've used that subject heading before, but so what.  I've been in damp, snowy, geographically frustrating Pennsylvania for a week and a day now.  I'm slowly settling in, but I wouldn't expect anything concrete to stick until after the New Year.  I haven't completely unpacked yet, but I'm in a decent moving-around territorial limbo capacity.  I slept on my folks' couch for the first week, and then we went out and purchased a bed for the guest room last Saturday.  I was supposed to bring my full-size bed with me, but that would've cost more money than I already didn't have.  So, the new bed is either a nice early Christmas gift for me (if I take it with me) or a big step forward in the home decor department for them (if I don't).

Anyway, I have 90% of my things inside the house now, and I haven't driven my car in over a week.  Which is fine by me.  I don't have anywhere to go, no money to do anything with, and I was stuck in that lovely little Saturn for 5 days for roughly 10 hours a stretch.  So I'm good if I don't go anywhere for a while.  You know, I don't remember the trip out to California being so, ... oh, what's the word?  Miserable?  Frighteningly agonizing?  Effulgent?  Just kidding.  I wanted to see if you were paying attention.

Forgive me if this entry seems a bit scatterbrained.  I'm doing about 4 things at once here, and my mind is poorly editing out all the things I want to say, but I know I can't because if I did, this entry would be 9 pages long.  I'm currently updating my LinkedIn account, editing my online job search info, updating my resume, and writing this LJ entry.  After I'm done with one of those things, I plan to either start a load of laundry, finally post an ad on Craigslist about my writing desk that I couldn't take with me, edit one of the many other online job search alerts I have, or continue to waffle between worrying about my immediate cash flow problem and washing the dishes.

But that's me in a nutshell, isn't it?  Some things never change.  So you know what this calls for, right?  Bullet lists!!  My all-time favorite literary device for cutting through the flotsam.  Let's get started, shall we?  Here's just a taste of what I wanted to share before my hands got tired and our family dog started annoying the crap out of me.  Anyone know the best way to ignore a 78 lb. Akita?

Interesting events during my relocation East of the Mississippi:

• I saw Meteor Crater in Arizona.  It was my one sightseeing pit stop. Even though it ate into my dwindlinged funds, I'm glad I stopped.  It's a pretty awesome sight to behold.  A 50,000-year-old crater that shines a fascinating light on our past is just sitting out there in the middle of a huge cattle ranch 6 miles south of US I-40.  I took the rim tour with about 5 other people.  I have photos, but I have no idea when I'll have the $$ to develop them.  But it was worth the $15 admission.  The crater measures 2.5 miles around, 570 feet deep, and 4,000 feet across.  The nerd in me almost plotzed when I walked out on the ridge that juts into the open air.  :-)  In the gift shop, I bought a refrigerator magnet with a great aerial shot of the crater for my folks, and I bought a bookmark for myself.  Oh, and I touched part of the meteorite that scientists recovered.  The meteorite was nearly decimated on impact, but the largest "chunk" they've recovered is about the size of two G4 Mac computers strapped together.  It's metallic, cold, and craggy.  Hey, that reminds me of the old HR Manager at my last job.  Ha!

• On a less than enthusiastic note, I got pulled over by the cops outside of Big Cabin, Oklahoma.  Don't ask.  It was bulls@#t.  He saw my California plates and just wanted to harass someone on a late Friday night.  Asshole.  I pulled off the OK turnpike so I could check-in at a Super 8 motel for the night, but I accidentally turned the wrong way after I paid the toll and didn't realize it until it was too late.  He claims he clocked me doing 63 in a 55 mph zone.  Which, of course, is bulls@#t.  Let me see.  I'm searching for a motel on a dark road with no lights, and I'm getting further and further away from any businesses near the highway exit, but I'm somehow doing 63 in a 55.  Cuz that's what people do when they're lost in a dark area.  Drive fast.  GTFOH.  And to top it off, it was some fat, Buford T. Justice-wannabe asshole too!  I couldn't make out that it was a cop riding my bumper as he followed me from lane to lane, so I did a U-turn to avoid the possible gang-rapists, and he pulled me over.  F!#@er.  He let me go without a ticket (Whatever!), and gave me directions to the hotel.  How do I know he was full of it?  When he pulled me over, he didn't ask: Do you know why I stopped you?  Or do you know how fast you were going?  He asked:  Are you lost?  Then, he started claiming I was speeding and a U-Turn is a "No-No" in OK or on the Cherokee Nation (which I happened to wander onto while searching for the hotel).  But, my mama didn't raise no fool, so I didn't argue.  I apologized for "speeding", and explained that I was tired and just wanted to find the hotel.  SMH

• One mini-sightseeing moment also came when I drove past the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO.  I've seen it before driving West, but never driving East.  Well, the I-70 route heading East takes your right past the base.  You can literally see it shining in the distance as you approach, and just before you head across the bridge into Illinois, you can look to your left and see one leg of the Arch anchored into the ground glistening like something that glistens.  I told you my brain is scattered, didn't I?  Anyway.  It was a nice perk after my not-so-nice visit with Mr. Buford T. Justice the night before. 

• I stopped in Indianapolis for one day to visit family and get some rest.  Even though I desperately wanted to get the whole trek over with, it occurred to me that I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, packing boxes, moving boxes, setting up charity pickups, giving away items I couldn't take with me, loading my car, doing laundry, coordinating a dozen other things, driving from 9:30am to 9:30pm with approx. 2 rest stops for 3 days straight, and living off of fast food and caffeinated beverages for 2 weeks.  A nice family visit was the least I could do.  While in Indy (which had a light snowstorm blow through about 2 hours before I arrived), I saw my aunts, cousins, grandparents, and family friends.  I helped decorate a gingerbread house for my second cousins (all under the age of 9).  I ate White Castle cheeseburgers.  (Ask me what I had to drink?)  :-)  I saw Lucas Oil stadium finally complete from the highway.  I hung out with my aunt Dana's kids and their friends for almost 2 hours.  And I still managed to get lost trying to find the highway when I left on Monday morning.  Oh, and I also visited my grandfather in the hospital.  He caught pneumonia and had to be admitted the previous Thursday.  But he's home now and doing fine.  He had grown out his white beard because he was supposed to play Santa Claus in the Christmas play at his church that weekend.  I don't know if someone filled in for him or they moved the play to the following Saturday.  But he's doing better.

Just a few things I noticed during my trek:

• As you move East, there are fewer and fewer fast food restaurants that offer paper toilet-seat covers in the bathrooms.  What's up with that?!  Is California just super-sensitive about germs or am I just spoiled?  I know they have them in major cities in the MidWest, but honestly, Moriarity, NM, Yukon, OK, and Effingham, IL, y'all need to get on that.

• Pennsylvania is a big ass f@$king state!!  No, I don't think I'm being clear enough here.  When you're driving alone and the sun sets at 5:05 pm and you just passed Wheeling, WV, not 1 hour before, PENNSYLVANIA IS A BIG ASS F@$KING STATE!!!!!!  My advice is to avoid driving through it alone at all costs.  I seriously thought I was going to wake up one millisecond before my car careened into a stretch of the Appalachians as I failed to stay awake during one of the umpteen bends in the Pennsylvania turnpike.  I had to pull off the turnpike in some small town about halfway through the state, stop at a McDonalds, and eat a McFlurry while flipping through my last issue of Dance Spirit as the muscles in my back shifted, untwisted, then relaxed for 30 minutes.  I honestly believe it saved my life.

• I'm not used to being up 3 hours before my buddies back in CA.  You have no idea how much I wanted to text katbaggins at 10:30 am EST last Wednesday to tell her something.  Once I find my rhythm here, hopefully, there will be no crack-of-dawn texting.

• Speaking of the time change, I'm looking forward to celebrating the holidays with my folks.  But I'm even more excited to ring in the New Year with the East Coast again.  It's just not the same in California, folks.  Sorry.  I don't think I was ever going to get used to that.

Let's see.  Is there anything else?

• Oh yeah.  I'm broke.  Seriously.  I haven't received my last paycheck from the bookstore and I haven't received my security deposit from my apt. manager.  Until that happens or I get a PT job in the local area/FT job in a major city, I'm at the mercy of my mother and stepfather.  And this, I appreciate, but I do not like.  And don't worry dangerousblonde, I haven't forgotten you at all.  I'll be sending you an e-mail either later today or tomorrow morning.

• My folks have DirecTV, so I'm spoiling myself with satellite television.  I'm also happy to be here in time to enjoy Christian Kane's new show, Leverage.  My mother and I watched the first two episodes together, but she chose to watch Dr. Who last night, while I watched Leverage.  Whatev.  So far, even though I decided to check out the show because of Christian, it's Aldis Hodge and Beth Riesgraf who have me glued to my seat.  To be honest, I'm actually discovering why my mother loves Timothy Hutton so more than fawning over Christian, who's hair is waaayyy too long for a character who's the "muscle" for this little A-Team.  You can tell the cast is still trying to find its way in terms of building relationships and chemistry onscreen, but I'm willing to give them time to get there.  It's good, and I'm enjoying it for what it is.

• I need to take the twists out of my hair, but I'm hesitant because I know I'll just be walking around with a hat on until I either plan to go somewhere important or I raise enough $$ to have them redone.

• On another note, anyone in Cali interested in buying my writing desk?  My neighbors are holding onto it until I can sell it to a friend or on Craigslist.  This is what it looks like.  It's not necessarily big, but it is wide and perfect for anyone who needs space to hold their PC and write to their hearts content.

Okay, that's all folks.  I'm hungry.  Chat with ya' laters.