Oh, right...

Oh, right. I'm supposed to post one of these. And talk about life. Gotcha.

Sorry for the lack of post last week; it was a very busy week and talking about insecurities was hitting a little too close to home, so I opted to skip. Accept my apologies.

As you may know, Mom officially retired as a pastor of the United Methodist Church this past week. Her retirement ceremony was last Monday, and yesterday was her final Sunday in Hayesville. Matthew and Jeffrey and I all went, of course, and surprised her by singing special music, which made her cry, predictably. The church had its own little reception for her after the service, and it was very touching and very sweet. And afterward, we went to the house, which is all empty and repainted, for nostalgia purposes. I totally didn't tear up looking at my old room.

Mom and Dad bought a house in BG back in February (I think I mentioned???), and it is full of boxes of stuff at the moment, and they will be in the process of unpacking for a while to come. They also have to finish painting and redoing the kitchen in the hopes that the house might stop feeling quite so 1970s. It is a very fun, quirky house with a secret passage and a hidden door to the attic, and it is very them.

As for me, I finish work at the library this week, and I'm going out with a bang. Saturday is International Mud Day, which is apparently a thing, and that's the program they gave me, so yay mud! :)

I've been doing a lot of writing, finally, finally (as of . . . fifteen minutes ago?) finishing the first draft of the NaNo novel I started two and a half years ago. It's a monster, about 120,000 words long, and I can't wait to start draft two and get it down to a manageable size.

And then there's the New Plan. I've come to hate speaking definitely of my Plan, because it inevitably changes soon after, and yep, that's what's happened.

Shortly after my last update post where I talked about moving to New York with Chase, he and I had a conversation. Basically, it's looking less and less likely that his internship is going to turn into a full time job, and whether or not it does won't be decided until October. With how undesirable that uncertainty is, his boss has told him that if he finds something solid that starts in the fall, he should take it.

Well, that being true, we both decided that it didn't make a whole lot of sense for me to keep looking for jobs in an area of New York that doesn't really have anything in my field, so we shifted our focus. The YMCA's national headquarters are in DC, and Chase's dad has some firm contacts there, so Chase is hoping that he can find a job without too much trouble, especially after the work he's done at Frost Valley. So I shifted my job hunt, also to the DC area, and long story short, I'm gonna be moving in with Maggie come mid-July.

It's still terrifying, this thing that I'm doing that is so far outside of my comfort zone, but this change has actually made things a little less terrifying. A) I'll know someone in the area now; B) I have a place to stay for a little so I can job and apartment hunt on site. The downside is it means Chase and I are stuck doing long distance for at least another three months, which hardcore sucks. But in the long run, I know it's gonna make everything easier.

And I'll see if, living with Maggie, I can't get her to remember that this project exists every once in a while. :)