BOXEN!

I always laugh when I hear the Brian Reagan bit about boxen. Today, however, I am not laughing. The trouble is that I'm packing. I have plenty of boxen to put things in, courtesy of Dan, my brother in law, and my place of employment. Hugo LOVES boxes. He keeps testing them out for me. But lack of boxen isn't the problem. It the simple fact that I HATE PACKING (and unpacking, it should be noted). I didn't unpack from my mission for 2 months, but that's another story entirely and I digress. I'm hard pressed to come up with something I dislike more that packing, unless it's going to the dentist. Sorry dentists. I've put together a whole list of my favorite music, which I have playing like the soundtrack to my life. I even splurged and had a little really good chocolate to help the situation, but in truth, not even chocolate and good music can see me through on this one. I think it all comes down to the fact that I'm totally overwhelmed by the whole idea of moving. Again. Sounds like someone better talk me off the ledge before I do something crazy (hence the picture of the tree on the cliff). The fact that I'm blogging instead of packing is one of my classic symptoms of overwhelmedness. Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I find something else to do. Maybe I'll have some lunch and try to think small. Back to if after I find some yummy food! I promise.

"In my mind I'm gone to Carolina"

There's a song by James Taylor called "Carolina In My Mind". It starts out as noted in the title. How true that is--in MY mind I'm gone to Carolina. That's because Jon has been accepted to grad school at Winthrop in Rock Hill, South Carolina. It's about 20 miles from Charlotte, NC, and either place or somewhere in between is where we hope to end up. School starts there on August 24th. We're, to put it mildly, excited.

Last weekend Jon received an acceptance letter from a school in Virginia near Roanoake, called Radford, but Winthrop was our biggest hope. We hadn't heard anything from Winthrop and wondered what the delay might be. He sent an e-mail to a grad student at Winthrop to inquire as to the time-frame for hearing back and he expressed his desire simply to know when he might receive a response. He also mentioned that he wasn't trying to be a pain in the neck, but that he needed to make a decision regarding Radford. He did not receive a response to that e-mail, so he sent a second to the gentleman with whom we met when we visited Winthrop in the fall. The man replied within 15 minutes of receiving Jon's e-mail and he stated that his application had been received positively, but that there was a fire in the Graduate School building and due to the fire, no one had received a letter of acceptance or rejection. He told Jon that he would send an official acceptance letter within two weeks, but that he was indeed accepted. YAY!!!

It's hard to say who is more excited-Jon or I, but the collective excitement is off the charts! It's hard to keep myself here mentally now that we have a somewhere to plan on going. So, to borrow again from James Taylor, "Yes, I'm gone to Carolina in my mind."

A New Year and a New Decade

Happy New Year, everyone! May this one be as good as the last.