New place.

I moved yesterday. I will be living alone for a week or so until my new roommie moves his butt in. It was time I left Greg...I couldn't very well live with him forever and his place just didn't feel like "home" to me. I was comfortable there, but not like a home should feel, you know? My original plan was to buy a place of my own and have Matthew John move in with me (I usually always call him by his full name, yes...always have. Don't know why.), but frankly, I was nervous that I couldn't afford it and I get anxiety about such things very easily. I like to know that I can pay for everything, in full, when due, and not have to worry about it again. Buying my own place would not leave much room for feeling secure, in my eyes. So my friend Jay helped me find a couple places, Ani came to check out the place I'm living in now, and the others I saw where complete shitholes. All in all, it was a group effort to find me a place. haha Sadly, moving was not much of a group effort. Matthew John came through, like promised, and he and I were able to fit my queen bed, mattress and dresser all in my dad's SUV. Awesome! I don't know how it all fit. It was kind of like a clown car in my head, except there was still room for stuff in there. We packed up Matthew John's car as well and went on our way. Thankfully, my landlord helped bring the dresser and mattress up to our third floor apartment. I really don't know how much help I would have been. hehe I took the bed completely apart so getting it upstairs was simple and it's oddly light. Go IKEA! Rent was paid, keys were given and I was shown how to use the really old school heat. Awesome! I had it on "low" all night and I was comfy. It was a little chilly this morning but I need to get some rugs and black-out curtains to help remedy that. I might even knit and felt (*gasp*) a pair of slippers. I think there was a cute pair in one of the Stich n Bitch books I have... I found some good curtains on overstock.com and I figured on lunch today I would see how much Target has them for (if at all) and compare prices. Apparently overstock.com has $1 shipping...? Could that be correct? My other place to check is Bed Bath & Beyond and you KNOW I have coupons so they might even be cheaper there. I guess we'll see. I need to get stuff from there anyway. I'm all out of shampoo and almost out of conditioner. Uh oh. No worries, though. I'm clean and don't even shampoo my hair everyday anymore. ;)

The apartment is really quiet. I'm not sure how much I like that. Like, eerie quiet. Maybe it's just because I'm by myself right now? Who wants to have a sleepover in my almost completely unfurnished place? :D I have a queen size bed and nothing else. No couch, no kitchen table, nada. Matthew John has all the furniture. What would I do without that boy? And can we talk about him for a minute? We met forever ago. I must have been in 6th or 7th grade and he's a year older. I'm thinking we met at my elementary school, though he didn't go there. He's been BFF with Jay since before dinosaurs were on this earth and he came around with him one day. I do recall my dear Matthew John throwing a roll of tape at me...and not scotch tape. And by "at me" I mean at my face. I caught it, somehow. I had cat-like reflexes that one time in my life and never again. Odd. He and I butted heads for years after that. I couldn't even tell you when we were finally were okay with each other enough to have a real conversation but I love that boy now and would do anything for him. We kept losing touch for a year here, few months there, but we always find each other again. And there's something to be said about his helping me yesterday. He was the only person who could make time to help me. No one else could. No one else even offered. Oh wait, that's kind of a lie. Freddy P (my derby husband of sorts, a ref) offered but he went to PA on Sunday so he offered his services for the weekdays if I still need to bring stuff over...which I do. Mandy and Abby (fresh meat) offered to help too but Mandy would have to drive over an hour and that's just silly and Abby had somewhere to be most of Sunday. But anyway, it's been quite some time since Matthew John and I even spoke (maybe a year or so...?) and he totally came through for me. Let's be honest, I'm helping him too as he doesn't have a roommate right now and hates where he lives. It'll be a good match. I really can't wait. Can you tell?

I'm going to try and take some pictures of my lovely, completely empty place tonight and add pictures but I'm stealing interwebs until I can figure out what would be the most economical solution for me so the posting might not happen. I only get two bars from the ONLY person in my area who doesn't have a secure network (don't people trust others anymore?!) and it's barely enough for me to listen to Pandora without it cutting out every other song.

Moving has made me realize just how much craft related supplies I have. I have WAY more yarn than I thought I did and my goal is to still to stash bust. My sweater yarn from the Super Bowl sale (crap, I never blogged about that...tomorrow, maybe) and the yarn for Patrick's scarf are the last of purchases unless absolutely necessary--and I'm going to try not to make it a necessity to buy more. I have a lot of single skeins and one of the One Skein Wonders books so I'm hoping to really utilize the book over the next few months. I already know I want to make some lace scarf that I saw Irish Ann knitting the other night. It's beautiful already and it isn't even blocked. I also have some knitting for my swap to do. I need to buckle down and find a project so that I can meet the deadline. I've been zipping through projects lately, so I'm not really worried. I'll probably decide on something tonight since I have no TV or working intertubes to distract me. My swapee might read my blog and although (s)he doesn't know I will be doing the spoiling, I don't want to ruin the surprise at all so only my SnB girlies will know and see what I'm working on. Oh the suspense! I already bought some other items to throw in the package and I'm super excited about it all. I hope it all comes together nicely and (s)he loves it all. And yup, there is are men involved in the swap as well hence the "(s)he". I really don't want to give ANYTHING away. eek! Excited!!

Derby is going well too, and thank you to everyone who's been asking about it and encouraging me. I got new skates a couple weeks ago and my feet are almost used to them. I need to get some insole things that a couple of the girls and refs told me about and somehow break the leather in--it's killing my Achilles heel. But I'm making progress, getting some gnarly bruises and am really enjoying the time I spend with everyone on and off the track. It really is a huge commitment but for this time in my life, it's perfect and I'm learning to manage my time better and am working on getting into a routine with everything. Now if I can stick to eating right--I fell off the wagon big time. hehe It's been a stressful couple weeks.

Again, I hope to post some pictures of my apartment, knitting and derby soon. Be patient. I know my posts have been lackluster in the eye-candy department. I'm working on it. :D

Happy Monday.