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This post is partially a memo to self, but it also may help you find something neat that you're looking for--it's a few blogs and Etsy sites of some of my fellow Seattle-ites. :)

(Into) the Fray is Ambika's blog, and (Into) the Fray is also the name of her Etsy shop. Ambika makes beautiful jewelry with bold colors, and the cutest embellished hoodies. If I didn't already have like 5 hoodies, I would totally want one of hers. Perhaps I'll see if she would be willing to embellish my plain black one that I love so much. :)

World of Whimm is Kayce's blog, and World of Whimm is her Etsy shop. Kayce makes all kinds of cute stuff for little ones, including burp rags, quilts, and costumes. I totally want one of her fairy princess costumes in my size. :)

And finally, Wire Tree is Beth's blog, and Wire Tree is also her Etsy shop. Beth makes jewelry with gorgeous little wire spirals and beads, and she also takes some incredible photographs of nature. I can't pick just one picture that I love from her shop! :)

I'm sure there will be more posts like this as I discover more blogs of the ladies (and gentlemen) of EtsyRain, the Seattle Etsy Street Team.

Labels: blogs, etsy, etsyrain, links, Seattle, street team

:: Dawn 10:52 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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It's the week that never ends... it just goes on and on... okay, I'll stop now. :)

Last Wednesday was the first meetup for the Seattle Etsy folks, which was a blast. Of course, this also meant that I didn't get a whole lot done. So Thursday night was spent getting ready for all of the events over the weekend, as was Friday night.

Saturday was the supply swap at Marlo's house, which was a lot of fun, despite the increasingly warm weather. I took a bunch of fabric, patterns, and other things I couldn't use, and came home with yarn, lots of nifty bits and bobs for steampunk costumes, and a lovely purple bound sketchbook (full size!) for me. I still can't draw, but that doesn't stop me from having a sketchbook. :)

After running home from that, it was time to go to our first Scion game. I still haven't entirely read the mechanics, but I am getting the hang of it pretty quickly. Unfortunately, we got into combat fairly late in the evening, and I botched my "join combat" roll, which meant that I didn't get to do my super kewl manuever that I had thought up. Ah well. Maybe next time. :)

So we got home from that close to midnight, and then I had to be up at 6 a.m. to get ready for the Fremont Market, where some of the Seattle Etsy people were vending. We ended up with 10 of us sharing two booths, which really worked out fairly nicely. Despite the heat and the relative lack of sales, I had a pretty good time chatting with the other sellers and a few customers. I'm still waiting to see if any more sales come out of the event, but I'm hopeful. I know I got my name out there, and we also got Etsy's name out there. So that was good.

Of course, I couldn't veg out when I got home from that, but rather had to work on photographing new items and such, and I didn't get to bed till my usual time. I'm really paying for it today at work, because I'm dragging big time. It doesn't help matters any that our office manager is on vacation, so I'm covering for her as well as doing my own work. It's been a bit hectic today, due to that. But it's calmed down now, so I'm unwinding a bit before heading home... to do more stuff...

I think I will definitely be trying to make time for a nice bath tonight though. *crossing fingers*
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Labels: crafts, etsy, gaming, scion, Seattle, work

:: Dawn 6:21 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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And now, some thoughts on Scion. :)

As to a little background information, Jerome is actually the one who discovered this game, I believe on our one and only trip to Barnes & Noble since we have arrived. That store is a dangerous place for people who like books, so we avoid it. :) At any rate, he found the game, thought it looked neat, and I was half inclined to agree with him. Only half inclined, mind you, because I generally haven't liked what White Wolf has done with their newer games.

I think Scion has changed my mind. Granted, I haven't really looked at the mechanical aspects of the game yet, and I may find that they are simply maddening, but as for the background behind the game, and the general feel of the game, I think White Wolf has a winner. In my book, at least, which ought to count for something, if you ever think about how much money I have spent on that company's products. (I try not to. It just makes me depressed. :) )

The basic premise of the game is that all of the old "pagan" gods are still around, and occasionally come to Earth to... ummmm... propogate... yeah, that's a good way to put it. And the offspring of a god and a mortal is a Scion. So depending upon who your character's divine parent is, he or she will have all sorts of nifty powers and inclinations. My character, for example, is a daughter of Tyr. She's going to be a politically active rock singer, championing such causes as gender and racial equality--in other words, justice for all. :)

My only complaint about the game so far is this: Scion: Hero is the first in a series of three books. It only covers character advancement up to one-third of your character's ultimate potential. In other words, if you wanna take your character all the way, you'll have to wait on the other two books, which will cover the rest of their potential. Clever marketing strategy. Annoying, however. Scion: Hero set us back $35+tax. This is gonna end up being a $100+ game! (Oh, wait, we're thinking about how much money I have spent / will spend on game books again. Stop that.)

So I'm sure I'll have more to say when I read through the rules mechanics. Of course, that would involve wrestling the book away from Jerome for more than a few minutes at a time, and having a bit of free time to do so. Okay, so it will probably wait till Saturday morning, when he's still asleep. :)

::..::

In other news, I get to meet some of the other folks from the Seattle Etsy street team tomorrow night. Saturday, we've got a Crafty Supply Swap (sponsored by i.heart.rummage), and Sunday, some of us EtsyRain folks are going to be at the Fremont Market. If you're in the Seattle area, stop by and see us! We'll be at the FAR end of the Market, which I can't describe in terms of street intersections, but if you've ever been to the Fremont Market, I think you will understand. :)
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Labels: crafts, etsy, fremont, gaming, scion, Seattle, white wolf

:: Dawn 9:57 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Why yes, I think things have changed around a bit on the site! Thank you for noticing! :)

Yes, I have rearranged my sidebar, and added a handy little Google search bar. I figure I might as well make my blog useful, right? :)

Oh, wait, I can do that by posting? No way! :)

Anyways, life is good, I'm doing like twelve billion things at work and maybe eleven million things at home. Busy? Yeah. But those who know me well will know that that's how I like it. :)

This weekend, we have two picnics to go to on Saturday, and we're meeting a couple of gamers for coffee on Sunday. Looks like we might be playing Scion. Yeah, a new World of Darkness game. I have accepted the inevitability... either that, or Scion looks like a super awesome game, and I just don't care what system it is at this point! :)

I've also got about a billion things going on with Etsy right now, as I've somehow stumbled my way into being the contact person for the Seattle street team. This kinda cracks me up, because I've been here what, all of two months now? It's okay, though, I feel like I belong here already. I've learned my way around a few select areas, and will eventually branch out to a few more areas. :)

Okies, off to get more stuff done. :)
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Labels: etsy, gaming, new world of darkness, scion, Seattle, work, writing

:: Dawn 9:48 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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There is something really bizarre about making your Christmas plans in July. It does, however, make you think of snow, and this can be a nice thing. :)

So for the interested: we fly into St. Louis on December 19th, theoretically arriving about 1:30. We will be renting a car there, and driving down to the Carbondale area (Johnston City, specifically) to visit Jerome's family for a few days. We're also hoping to get tattoos while we're there, but we have to see if our favorite artist is available when we will be there. I'm sure there will be C-dale area people who want to see us while we are there, so we'll try to orchestrate that as much as we can. We will definitely need to spend some time with assorted parts of Jerome's family, however, so we may be somewhat occupied.

Either on the 21st, in the evening, or early in the morning on the 22nd, we'll be driving back to St. Louis for my family's Christmas, which is almost never on actual Christmas. This is okay, though. :) After that, we will probably just be putzing around in the St. Louis area for a few more days, as we fly back to Seattle on December 25th. Oddly enough, flying on actual Christmas was cheaper than flying on Christmas Eve.

Still haven't figured out the rental car situation, but we will be getting one for at least the C-dale leg of the trip. While we're in St. Louis, we may just return the car and rely on the kindness of family members to cart us around. :) We're still exploring options on this, as I think I can get a discount on a rental car through work. :)

--++--

Other than that, life in Seattle is going smoothly. Jerome started school on Wednesday of this past week. He has two classes on Wednesdays, one on Thursdays, and two on Fridays during this quarter, which lasts until mid-September. His Wednesday classes are non-design classes, and they seem pretty silly. He doesn't like one of his design classes, but that may have something to do with the teacher telling them to bring construction paper and glue sticks to class next week. As Jerome says it, "I'm not in %&#(*@! kindergarden!" His two design classes on Friday, however, are much better. So it all works out okay. :)

Work is going well for me, I'm trying to get more involved with the assorted things that the office does, and trying to help people out when they've got more work than they can handle. I'm not able to do a lot of the technical stuff, but I can at least help out a little. :) I really do love the laid back atmosphere of both the office and Seattle in general, though I still tend to dress up most days at work. :)

In fun and exciting stuff, we saw "Transformers" last weekend and loved it. On Tuesday, we're going to see Voltaire play, which will be awesome. We missed his show at Dragon*Con cuz I was tired, so we made sure to get tickets for this show. What makes it even more fun is that his opening act for this show is an 80s cover band... but not just any 80s cover band... it's an 80s cover band of five transvestites... :) Rock on! :)
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Labels: christmas, school, Seattle, Voltaire, work

:: Dawn 8:01 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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*sigh* Yes, I'm bad about remembering to update. I will use the fact that I am generally pretty busy as my excuse. :)

Work is going pretty well. I've become the unofficial librarian for the office, which is odd, seeing as I probably know what books are in the office better than anyone else who works there, and I've only been there for a month. (Though I am no longer the newest person there.)

The only downside of work is that it's an 8 hours day with an hour for lunch, which is considerably longer than the amount of time I spent outside of the apartment in Carbondale. Toss in the commute time, and I'm out of the house for about 10 hours a day. By the time I get home, have dinner, and unwind a bit, it's usually approaching 7 p.m. And since I wake up at 6 a.m. during the week, I have been trying to get to bed around 10. This leaves me maybe 3ish hours a day to get stuff done, and I have far more stuff to do than I have time for. The weekends are a bit better, since I don't have to be out of the apartment for a 10 hour stretch, but there are a surprising number of things that are only open Monday-Friday, especially downtown. (Like the Jimmy John's. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)

Still writing, sorta, though it's mostly on myLot, which is more of a discussion forum than real writing. Still, I make a little money with that, which is nice. Still selling on Etsy, too, when I have enough time to make stuff to put up. Both of these things are good, as they put money in my PayPal, which is useful for funding our eBay habit... which is mainly finding steampunk stuffs / old military stuffs. :)

Okies, almost time for me to go to bed, and Jerome is watching "End of Days," which is one of the worst movies ever made. I think it is definitely my bedtime!

Labels: etsy, job, mylot, Seattle, writing

:: Dawn 11:51 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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We got to Seattle Friday, I posted last on Sunday. Since then, plenty of stuff going on. Time for another update. :)

Monday:
On Monday afternoon I had an interview for a job. I thought that it went very very well, and was very pleased with the prospects of working for this company. :)

Also on Monday, we moved into our apartment. We didn't have any furniture with us, but we had our sleeping bags, and the bedroom is carpeted, so good enough. :) It's a nice one bedroom apartment with all of the rooms being nice and big. It is wonderful to have a kitchen where two people can be working on stuff, and not tripping over each other. The bathroom is also large, our bedroom is WAY bigger, and the living room is big enough that it will be our living room / office / dining room / sewing area. If we ever get a futon and finish unpacking our boxes. :)

Tuesday:
Tuesday we decided to explore the bus system for the first time, as Jerome had an appointment at his school. We have successfully navigated the buses now. :) The appointment at his school was regarding financial aid, and wasn't the greatest news, but at least he is getting some grants. That's better than none. :)

Wednesday:
On Wednesday, we found out bright and early that our stuff had arrived, so I found some movers, and made arrangements to have our stuff moved in. Yes, Jerome and I could have rented another U-Haul, loaded it up, drove it up here, unloaded it, and returned it. The problem with this theory, however, is that we live at the top of a hill on a very busy street (a.k.a. a highway). From the front of the building, you go up a short flight of stairs, and then down a short flight of stairs to get to our front door. From the back of the building, you go up two flights of stairs with a turn in the middle. And our apartment is technically on the first floor! :) Couple this with our VERY tiny parking lot, and it seemed like it was going to cause a lot less aggravation to just hire movers and let THEM figure out all of the tricky bits. They did so quite nicely, I might add. :)

Wednesday was also the day that I found out that they wanted me to take the job I had interviewed for. w00t! :)

Thursday:
I think we spent most of Thursday unpacking and such. It's a bit of a blur. :)

Friday:
Yesterday, I went by my new office in the morning, and ended up sitting in on a staff meeting. So I got to meet my co-workers, and see that the dress code there is pretty laid back. Almost everyone was in jeans. :) It was a Friday, of course, but I think that the dress code is pretty laid back all the time. :)

Came home, finally got the wireless internet working, went shopping for a bit, and finally managed to get a lot of my online stuff done. :)

Oh, and my books got here. :) I will be sending those out to the appropriate recipients as time permits. Mostly, they're all spoken for, I think.

Upcoming agenda:
I start work on Tuesday, and won't be getting any days off (other than weekends) till the 4th of July. Ah well, I can live with that. :) Because I WILL be able to get a week off at Christmas, and since Jerome should also be off school then, we will get to come back to the Midwest for Christmas. We'll have to split our time between St. Louis (my family) and Marion (his), but we should have a little time to see friends as well. :) (Oh, and get tattoos. :) )

Also on Tuesday, we get to go to our first concert in Seattle. Lacuna Coil, The Gathering, Within Temptation, and Stolen Babies. I love all four of these bands, so I am super duper happy. Jerome doesn't like The Gathering or Within Temptation quite as much as me, but he does like some of their stuff. And he loves the other two bands. :)

Jerome will be starting school in July now, so he has another month of freedom. But with me being at work in the day time, I think he's gonna get a whole bunch of errands to run for me... lucky him... :)

Labels: job, moving, Seattle

:: Dawn 10:58 AM [+] :: (2) comments
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I've got a bit of free time this morning, so here comes the recap. :)

Day 0 (Monday, May 14)
Monday was our day to pick up the U-Haul and load it. That's all we really had to do. We picked it up no problem, and had to make a few stops along the way to get a few pieces of furniture that were being stored elsewhere: the vanity from Jerome's old house that I loved, and my pappasan from Cindy's basement. We picked up the vanity, and Jerome stayed in Marion briefly to say goodbye to some of his teachers, while I took the U-Haul back home.

Our plan was to back the U-Haul up to our front door, load it, and be done with it. Well, because the frat boys like to park on the driveway between our building and their house, there was no way to get the U-Haul onto the lawn. Technically speaking, they were legally parked, and what we wanted to do wasn't 100% legit, so we couldn't exactly try to have them towed out of our way. Instead, we sat and watched the lawn and street all day, and finally were able to get the U-Haul into a position where we would be able to load it.

Luckily, we got this done right before Jerome's dad arrived, so we had extra help loading the truck. As it turned out, I mostly just directed traffic while they loaded. I also tried desperately to clean a little, but since we didn't move all the furniture, it was a bit haphazard. We ended up having to choose a few things to leave behind, including my desk. I didn't mind too much, though, because I needed a new one anyway. The desk I had wasn't meant to hold an old-style monitor!

Day 1 (Tuesday, May 15) - Carbondale to Kansas City
On Tuesday, we were up bright and early to load the car and get on the road. Our first stop was Scott City, Missouri, where we would load all of the stuff from the U-Haul into a semi-trailer. This way, we didn't have to drive a U-Haul cross-country, and our stuff would not arrive in Seattle for a few days after we did, giving us time to find an apartment.

After loading up the truck, we headed into Cape Girardeau to return the U-Haul, and then we were on our way. We headed up towards St. Louis, so we could say goodbye to my parents. We hit some REALLY nasty weather near Crystal City, which slowed us down quite a bit. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as the people who were headed south, and were backed up for miles due to an accident on their side of the highway. We stopped by and saw my dad and my mom at work, and then hit the road again, to see my sister and her family in Kansas City.

Unfortunately, with the running late, we didn't get to see my nephew, since he had gone to bed before we arrived. But Sarah had saved us some dinner, which was super tasty. We sat and talked with her and Nathaniel for a while, and also saw Ben (Nathaniel's brother) briefly. Jerome commented after we left that you can tell that Sarah, Megan, and I are all sisters. He says we all talk the same--that our voices are similar, and that we use a lot of the same words and expressions. I'm not sure what this says about our family, but I don't think it's bad. :)

Day 2 (Wednesday, May 16) - Kansas City to Cheyenne... or Laramie...
Up bright and early again on Wednesday, because we had a long drive ahead of us. Theoretically, it should have been about a 9 hour drive. But due to me making a small wrong turn, plus stops, and chaos in Cheyenne, we were in the car almost 13 hours that day.

We drove north from Kansas City, headed for Iowa. We weren't in Iowa long, and then we headed into Nebraska. This is where I made the wrong turn, and we ended up going a little out of our way as we cruised through Omaha. Of course, after Omaha, Nebraska got VERY boring. There aren't even many billboards to break up the monotony. Nebraska is also a very wide state, which means it takes a long time to cross it.

Luckily, we found a couple of interesting things. In Kearney, Nebraska, we stopped at the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, which is this big archway/museum built across the highway. It commemorates stuff like the '49ers, the Mormon Pioneers, and the people who traveled on the Oregon Trail. We took a whole lot of pictures there, which I haven't gotten off of my camera yet (and Jerome put his onto his computer, not mine).

We also stopped at the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles, where Jerome took a TON of pictures. I took pictures of the vehicles that looked steam-punk-esque, and flowers, and a typewriter. I am a geek. :) He enjoyed this museum a whole lot more than me, but I did get to see some pretty neat stuff as well.

We eventually got to Cheyenne, which was where we hoped to stop for the night. The place was packed, unfortunately, and we couldn't find a hotel room. So we headed on to Laramie, and stopped at three hotels before finding a fourth hotel that had ONE room left. We took it. It was WAY more room than we needed, but we just wanted to sleep at that point.

Day 4 (Thursday, May 17) - Laramie to Boise
Thursday was supposed to be our longest day on the road, at an estimated 10 hours. As it turned out, Wednesday was actually longer, because we were only in the car for 12 hours on Thursday.

We started out in Wyoming, which was growing increasingly boring as we moved across the state. Traveling on I-80, most people go through a tunnel... but not us. We ended up driving PAST the tunnels on a business highway, because we had stopped for lunch in the town near the tunnels. I was bummed, because I LIKE tunnels. I kept hoping for more tunnels later on, but no such luck. :(

We dipped briefly into Utah, where we discovered that the whole state must be a construction zone. I don't think there was more than a few miles of highway NOT under construction.

Then it was on to Idaho, which was a boring mix of Nebraska and Wyoming, especially because there was really nothing to do or see. Our highlight of the day was stopping in a little town called Jerome, where we went to Wal-Mart and bought bathing suits. :) We finally arrived in Boise, and I insisted on sitting in the pool for just a little while. It was in the 80s in Boise, so the water was pretty decent, but got cold after a bit. At any rate, I felt much better after sitting in the pool.

Day 5 (Friday, May 18) - Boise to Seattle
Started out a little later than usual, because our estimation on time for this day of driving was about 8 hours. We decided that arriving in Seattle at rush hour was a horrible plan, so we slept a little later and then took a few stops on the way.

Our first stop was in Oregon, at a museum that claimed to be an Oregon Trail museum. We had two options in that town... one claimed to be a museum, and the other was an interpretive center. I picked the museum, cuz it sounded more historical. Boy, was I wrong. It was basically a little small town museum, with very little of interest. Mostly, I looked at old boots and desks and said "ooh, I want that." The interpretive center probably would have been the better choice. Ah well.

The next stop we made was in Washington, near Yakima, at the Yakama Cultural Center (or something like that). It was a really quiet museum, and somehow I felt a little weird being there, as though it was designed more for people of the tribes represented there to visit.

At any rate, our delaying tactics worked well, and we got to Seattle around 6 p.m., but not before first stopping in a little town that had PILES OF SNOW!!!!! This was when I realized that my shorts were a poor choice for Washington. :) We ran into a bit of traffic coming into Seattle, but that was because the Mariners had a home game that night.

We drove around for a bit, looking for an apartment that we were thinking about seeing on Saturday, and ultimately deciding that we didn't like the neighborhood it was in. So we headed for the hotel, where I started making a list of apartments that we could go see instead.

And that ends the exciting excursion. Stay tuned for other exciting developments, like whether or not we will get the apartment that we want! Waiting for a phone call on that this morning!

Labels: moving, Seattle

:: Dawn 10:37 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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We've arrived in Seattle. It's late, and I'm tired. I'll try to post a real update sometime later, but for now, my brain is still halfway on Mountain time, so I gotta sleep. :)

Labels: moving, Seattle

:: Dawn 12:25 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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I didn't update last night because we didn't have wireless at the hotel. We have it tonight, but I am dead tired, after 13 hours in the car. We made it to Laramie, Wyoming, though, which puts us slightly ahead of schedule for tomorrow's drive.

I'll try to update with more details later. Tomorrow is going to be a similarly long day, so I may be too tired to update tomorrow night as well.

We are having fun, though, and taking pictures! :)

Labels: moving, Seattle

:: Dawn 11:18 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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Greetings from our last morning in Illinois! :)

I'm up earlier than I need to be, but it's giving me a chance to update the blog and let people know what's going on. :) I need to wake Jerome up in about half an hour or so, so that we can finish loading the vehicles and head over to Scott City, Missouri, where we will unload and return the U-Haul. Then we start the first leg of the trip, which is to St. Louis and Kansas City.

In St. Louis, we will be going through Arnold, Missouri, the home of my ancestors, and seeing Vogel Road, which is the actual road on which my great-great-great grandfather settled with his family. Then we'll stop by my dad's work, and then my mom's work, before swinging out west to Kansas City, where we'll visit Sarah, Nathaniel, and my nephew Peter. They're leaving for the Bahamas tomorrow morning (EARLY), so we'll go to a hotel for the night.

I suspect I'll be too tired for an update tonight, but hopefully I'll get to tell you all about the fun and excitement of our first day on the road tomorrow morning. :)

Seattle, here we come! :)

+++++

In other news, here's my book. *victory lap*

Labels: book, moving, Seattle

:: Dawn 6:21 AM [+] :: (0) comments
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Yeah, it's been a while. :)

So first off, since the news is completely official now, Jerome and I are moving to Seattle in May. My last day at the Grant Association is May 4th, and he will be working at "the BK Lounge" (Burger King, for the non-Dane Cook fans) a little longer than that. On May 14th, we get to pack everything we own into a moving truck. On May 15th, we get to move almost everything we own onto a flatbed trailer, and then start driving across the country in our car. We plan to get to Seattle on May 18th, and our stuff will arrive a few days later. This is good, because we haven't found an apartment yet, so we will be staying in a hotel while we try to track down a good deal. :)

It's a big move, in a lot of ways. I'm leaving my job of almost 9 years, I'm leaving the Midwest, and I'm going to a major city. I'm very excited, though, because I love Seattle! I also love Jerome very much, and it will be wonderful for both of us to be in Seattle. He starts art school in October, and I will be working while he's in school for three years. Then, he wants to get a job and let me go back to school for my Ph.D. :) I dunno if I will for sure, but it's a nice possibility. :)

So yeah. We will be making a few stops on our final tour of the Midwest, so if you've been wanting to catch up with me, now is the time to do it. Our weekends are filling up quickly, and we're counting down the days till we become vagabonds of a sort... :)

#####

In other news, Type O Negative is playing Pop's tonight. I haven't seen them in something like 3 years, so I am super excited. :) I'm also excited because we should have free tickets! :) 3 more hours of work, and then I go retrieve Nick (who is getting us the free tickets) from his dorm, and then we're off to harrass the BK Lounge employees until Jerome gets off work at 5. :) Whee! :)

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And in other other news, I really am going to try to update more often over here. As we prepare to move away from our friends and family, it will be good to get in the habit of posting news and such here, so they can keep up with us. I'm not sure how many of them read this now, but I'll have to start pointing people I know in this direction to keep up with us. :)
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Labels: moving, Seattle, Type O Negative

:: Dawn 12:57 PM [+] :: (0) comments
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