T-minus two days to the Golden State

On Thursday, I'm leaving for Berkeley. Which means that it's officially crazy thoughts time in my head. I think I am handling this transition better than most I have in the past. Let's review:

- Prior to going to Wellesley and the first semester there: So afraid that my friends back home would move on without me that I was bitterly afraid of being away from home/quite homesick for a few months
- Prior to leaving for Ireland: Better, in that I adjusted right away. But the transition and the fear of being so far caused me to be terribly sad the week before I left.

By contrast, I'm pretty calm about this one. It's easier in some ways - I've gone away to school before, so I know how that goes. I've lived 3000 miles away before (albeit for 5 months and not 5 years), so I can handle not being in a drivable distance to Jersey. And I'm moving in with Randy, know some of his friends, and have some acquaintances of my own in Berkeley, so I'm not going into my social life blind like my previous moves.

Still, sadness occasionally creeps in. Something symbolic about giving up my Jersey residency bothers me. The lack of ease/freedom to return home is also troubling; I don't mind being far, per say, but part of me feels anxious about not being able to dash home if something happened and I was really needed. (This concern never struck me before; I can't really imagine why it feels so acute now.) Plus, while I'm trying to be casual about it, very few people I know from home/family have made a cross-country move, so everybody else makes a big deal out of it. And faced with that, I can't help but think it a big deal on some level.

Thankfully, my experience has made me recognize that I will feel fine as soon as I get there; there's so much to be excited about (setting up a new apartment, exploring new environs, seeing Randy again, etc.) that I will enjoy myself without a problem once I'm there. But I always worry a little before I get places; as the transition time makes me restless and nostalgic and wistful and prematurely homesick.

Amusingly, the bad feelings this time are about relatively trite things. I worry about getting the stuff I want in my suitcases; about the crazy big bed in a very small room, about what appliances to acquire and how/where, and other such material things. This, perhaps, is good, as it's distracting me from what could be more serious sadness.

In three or four days, I'll be golden. Till then, wish me luck!

I need a better title for this blog.

In other news, I finally won myself a bar of soap, courtesy of craftygurll!

(I say finally because I love homemade soap and, of all the giveaways I've entered, it's been the prize I've coveted the most.)



This is not actually the bar of soap I won - which was a honey and shea bar - but the Salt and Pepper Bar Soap that she sells in her Etsy shop, which also looks quite awesome. Go check it out!

Wikipedia is amazing

I'm not sure how, but Wikipedia has led me from reading about public-sponsored graveyards to brushing up on the details of the infield fly rule.

And I used to think there was no point to that site!

Progress

I've been running for about 3 weeks now, since I've been back home. Running has always been cyclical for me - I'll start, do it for a couple weeks, then stop. I'm hoping I'll stick with it this time - I've taken to doing it first thing in my day, which makes it much easier to avoid the random excuses that have popped up in my head when I've failed before.

I've got a 3-mile circuit through the parks in town, and today was a milestone - the first time I ran the whole circuit straight through. Three miles isn't exciting for seasoned runners, but for somebody who couldn't run a mile in high school, this is pretty sweet. I'm thinking of doing a 5K in the fall, so it's also nice to know that I can make it through the distance!

Free stuff

One compelling reason to start a blog was to give props to the people who have created/hosted awesome things that I have won through internet giveaways that I've entered*.

Admittedly, the effectiveness of said props would be much greater if this were a blog that people read, but perhaps that will happen in the future, at which point people may stumble upon this post and check out these awesome artists.

Win the First: Simple Elegance Earrings from Bisou Bisou Beads



Claire of Bisou Bisou Beads gave these earrings away as a way to advertise them as a new addition to her shop. She gave me my choice of pearl color and I opted for the green (a color I've become quite fond of lately - must be the residual effect of the Wellesley class of 2009 on me). I just received them today, and they are indeed as awesome as pictured.

Claire's blog can be found here, and her jewelry can be viewed and purchased at her Etsy site.

Win the Second: Rock and River earrings from KneeDeepOriginals



The EtsyVeg team host a giveaway every week, and a couple of weeks ago they featured these earrings from KneeDeepOriginals. Rebecca, who owns the shop, uses lots of natural items in her works, and it leads to some beautiful and original designs (like these earrings!)

You can check out her shop here, and find not only more of her jewelry, but also notecards and original paintings.

* It's a bit of an addiction. I could say I'm working on it, but that would be a lie.

The Beginning of a New Blog

This isn't my first blog (my LiveJournal sits somewhere in cyberspace, rarely attended to), but I think starting one at Blogger is not a bad idea. The boring reasons, in no particular order:

1 - I started a family blog on Blogger, so now it's one-stop blogging for me.
2 - People whose opinions I am interested in frequently use Blogger, and this makes it easier for me to stalk keep tags on them.
3 - Google, I suspect, will slowly start to organize every aspect of my life, so why not help the process along?

I've never been particularly good about blogging, but perhaps this will go better!