Eeek, here we are in savannah !!

Eighteen hours with a cat in the car prooved to be less stressful than expected but more bizzare than I would have hoped; he was great the first day, but I think he thought the ordeal was finished at the hotel. He seems to have adjusted nicely to the new house .. I, on the other hand, feel like shit after sleeping on the floor in shifts of an hour at a time, waking up to the cat playing with roaches, but the movers should show up tomorrow and all will be grand.

Dad helped with the driving, and I think he had a good time .. I was glad to spend some quality time with him, and I think he knew it.

So dialup sucks, and comcast comes tomorrow between eight and ten .. much better hours than timewarner, hopefully they won't suck as bad. But Georgia rocks, so far, regardless of how much my back is hating life.

Pictures, cable and furniture tomorrow, probabily in that order.

Eek, movers are coming tomorrow to pack, and then loading on friday! When did that happen?

My new little toy site is coming along nicely; now I just need to fill it with delicious content. I would steal it from citysearch, but, alas, they don't have any. Hence the need for my site.

Lala :)

Everything's taken care of; the list of Things To Do is completely checked off, and we are just rar'in to go .. It's been beautiful in Austin the past few days, almost feels like Rochester in early May .. As long as the silly hurricane doesn't spoil our fun, we should have excellent driving weather.

So, I'm going to play Warcraft for the rest of the week. Because I can.

:D

Today is the most beautiful day Austin has ever seen :)

Our house is starting to be blank! The things on the wall are all down and wrapped; all the items going in the car are in boxes, and everythings generally ready for Allied to whip through and do their thang ..

Off to a wedding tonight .. Should be a good time :)

Eek, and is that really a 3/4" hole?

That will teach me to have a good time at a party :) j & i came down with strep throat, and i slept 44 hours in the last two days. i feel much better now, but it's amazing - my body completely shut down. i feel like i just crawled out of a cave somewhere.

Spent an hour or two packing up some of our stuff; eek, moving in a week! my jetta's trunk is going to hold anything and everything that we think is important, and i'm glad it's so big. yay for big trunks.

It's strange; it's been "moving in a while" for so long, and now it's "moving really soon" .. happened suddenly, and now it's here.

I'm ready.

Our party was a big success :) Jess & I had a great time, and I think the kiddies that showed up are a little fatter, drunker and happier now.

It was a good way to say goodbye to the people who defined Austin for us, for the two years that we lived here.

j & I had a really nice night last night; we baked and cooked all night, and the house smelled like pre-bbq goodness. Should get a fair turnout tonight, and I can't decide if the ten pounds of chicken marinating is too much or enough. The smell of her bread is fantastic; she's really getting good at it, and I love the whole procedural aspects of creating this enormous mess of flour and dough and eventually ending up with a rosemary delight ..

So, today is lots of cleaning and cooking, and hopefully tonight is a stress-free night of drinking and smiling, and generally saying goodbye to the people that shaped our austin experience ..

It's interesting that it takes a magazine like Salon to actually post something substantial about september 11th; i feel somewhat uplifted to know that, no, my wife and i are not the only people sick to tears of how offensive american politics and propoganda can get. This first article, and this excerpt from the followup, illustrate much of why i'm not chearing to bon jovi on vh1 or to the bagpipes playing on the hour at "ground zero":

I watched from my window, not on television, as the twin towers fell. As shocked as I was, I felt that this was not my problem as a black person. The people who worked at the World Trade Center were mostly white men, and so they had nothing to do with me as a black woman.

To me, 9/11 was just another example of the American paradigm of deservedness and white entitlement. We are not all Americans; the white investment banker, the white fireman, the white police officer, the white EMT, they are Americans.

I got booted from the B&B by the president of the school - I guess there has to be some sort of pecking order - so here I am in the Best Western .. walked my butt down here, and, after dropping my stuff off, Bob picked me up. We drove over to the Product Design building, which turned out to be right around the corner, and ended up spending about three hours discussing design, scad, and the world around. Bob is perhaps the smartest, friendliest, and absolutely most sincere person I have ever met, and I actually got more creative fulfillment simply from talking with him than I have from any of my past four jobs. I'm absolutely enthralled with being a professor; scared - scared to death - but absolutely energized.

Back to the hotel; a quick swim, and off to river street. Up and down the river, and it's beautiful; the sun is shining, and the tourists are spending their money on trinkets and garbage, and it's lovely. A quick pitcher of beer at a local tavern turns into a few hour discussion with a dirty, grimy sandblaster with no teeth, who was happy to tell me about his two wives and his girlfriend, as well as how he couldn't pay his $145 rent last month; the local color is rich, absolutely thick with character.

Back to my room, and after packing and a little road rules, time to go to bed. An early flight tomorrow, and I'm absolutely ready to be back home - and ready to move here, to Savannah, permanently.

I miss you, Jess; I'm ready to live here with you.

ade coffee, and just getting my thoughts in order .. today should be busy, and I hope to have a signed lease in my hands by the end of the day .. :)

..

The first property I visited was nice, but in a grandmotherey sort of way; I could imagine living there and playing Mahjong in the living room while serving tea on the balcony.

I killed a half an hour by wandering around the area; it's only 9:30 at this point and it's already humid and disgusting, much like Texas. I guess you can't escape the heat in the south; there are less mosquitoes, though.

Wandered over to the real-estate office, and met Ticky, the agent who would show me around. What a basketcase; she's very nice, but absolutely disorganized and everywhere at once. She showed me three properties, and all of them were cute .. The victorian garden apartments are fantastic, with the bright colored walls and hard wood floors.

Then, back to the hotel for a bite to eat while my digital pictures upload.. I had forgotten how slow a modem was. I came back thirty minutes later, after having eaten an enormous lunch of fried chicken and potato salad, and they still weren't done! .. Finally, after they were all finished, J & I worked our way through the properties over the phone .. Although they were all really nice, we were still very fond of the initial property - the one from yesterday - and so, here I go, off to call the agent.

..

Met with Bob at Six Pence, a cute little local tavern; we sat outside and shot the shit for a few hours, and he gave me some more information about my classes; it's interesting, he senses the same distinctions and issues creeping up through the process that I did, and had some insightful ideas on how to change things,

for the better.

..

Back, with a signed lease! Here are pictures of our house; please forgive the small child in almost every photo - she doesn't come with; she's the agent's daughter.

And here is a view from our front porch:

..

and now, i'm going to bed :)

An easy start to the trip; quick drive to the airport, and no hassels with security. I was able to move my seat up to the very front of coach, and it's a very, very empty flight; the guy next to me looks like Mike Lovenheim's dad, except more stoned.

It's a beautiful morning outside, and I'm feeling really excited about finding a place; I hope it goes smoothly, and I hope I find something really cozy .. our current house is fantastic, so it's going to be hard to keep things in perspective, but I like the idea of starting new .. And that's exactly what Jess & I get to do in a few weeks - start again.

..

In Savannah, in the cab, and then - here I am, at the bed and breakfast. A fantastically large and smiling woman gave me a hug as I walked in and called me Sweetie .. The b&b is fantastic! I feel like I'm living on a plantation.

After dropping my things in my room, and making a few calls, I wandered down and out into Liberty avenue. I hurried down to check out a house with a pond of fish in the back; unfortunately, the pond of fish was the high point of the experience. A few more non-descript houses, and off to the last appointment. On the corner of Bolton and Whittaker is the cutest, just-redone Victorian house; hardwood floors, high ceilings, big windows .. Absolutely fantastic. So now the trick is to play negotiate with the agent; a meeting tomorrow should be all it takes to secure it.

Just to cover all my bases, I'm meeting with "Ticky", the agent from Cora Bett Thomas, tomorrow morning .. She's going to show me all around, and, between her listings and the one mentioned above, I think it's a done deal.

Went to a little pub for dinner, and I swear I was watching the whiter-trash version of cheers play out; the reuben was good, though ;)

My back is absolutely killing me. Off to bed, and then, back to it tomorrow ..