Party planning gives me the hives, but I’ve gone ahead and set a date for my official going-away party. Everyone is invited—Internet people, work buddies, friends, random lurkers. Stop on by if you can! (And if you’re over 21. Sorry, liquor laws!)

Jennette’s Bye, Bye Bash

Wednesday, June 23

6:00pm-9:00pm

The Rathskellar Biergarten

401 East Michigan St

Indianapolis, IN 46204

Google maps link

Drop by to say good-bye to Jennette before she packs up her things and leaves Indiana for the hills of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We’ll hijack some picnic tables and drink overpriced beers in the Biergarten. It’s “Can You Rock” night, so karaoke with the live band if you dare! You could win a prize, and I don’t even have to pay for it!

ETA: Uh, I just noticed there is a $3 cover charge. Sorry about that. See, this is why party planning gives me hives.

• Continue reading "My Bye, Bye Bash at the Biergarten"

Photo by clevercupcakes / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

A month from now I will probably be neck-deep in brown boxes and packing tape, sniffing a Sharpie marker to relax. I’ll be moving to North Carolina at the beginning of July, and while I’ve moved across town and moved 70 miles away for college, I’ve never moved out of state. Well, not on my own. My parents moved us out of state several times when I was a kid. My only part in those moves was the “game” my parents had us play afterwards where my brothers and I competed to see who could collect the most packing inventory stickers off the furniture. At the time I seriously thought this was a game, and not a clever way to get your kids to do slave labor gleefully.

My memories of former cross-city moves include several last-minute carloads of crap piled into the back seat that I ferried across town, all while saying, “I think we can get the rest in just one more trip!” Ha! Since I don’t see [...]

• Continue reading "I’ll probably regret asking this, but do you have any moving advice?"

I am out in North Carolina scouting for a place to live. One location was in the lead for several hours, until I came back later to reexamine the neighborhood and saw this on the neighbor’s porch:

You can change that label from “Roach away” to “Potential tenant away.”

At another place, the rental agent recognized me! (Hi, Holly!) This is only the third time I’ve run into a reader in real life outside of a blogging conference. It is bizarre, but kind of cool too. Sadly, that place is a bit out of my price range, but it would have been cool to live someplace where I am totally famous.

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Photo by andrewbain / CC BY 2.0

About seven years ago, my dad told us he was going to North Carolina on a business trip. Then, well, let’s just say he never made it to North Carolina and the next time I saw him was at the divorce hearing. Unlike my father, when I tell you I’m going to North Carolina, I’m actually going there, like, to live.

It all started last November when I flew out to Los Angeles. I stepped off the plane and it was so sunny that I felt a surge of Vitamin D coursing through my veins and I could hear the birds singing just for me. I wanted to lick the sunshine, or at least pack it in my suitcase. Then, I returned to Indiana, where my nostril hairs froze and the sky was most definitely NOT the color of topaz or even tourmaline, and I thought, “Why the hell am I living in this shithole?”

Then my consciousness replied, “Because of your mom and brother, you numnuts.” And I was like, [...]

• Continue reading "Moving to the tar heel state! (Uh, what is a tar heel?)"

The best thing about moving is the magical time period when you get to imagine how much better the new place will be. It won’t have any of those problems you had at your old place, like the guy below you who watched movies on his surround sound system at midnight or the dishwasher that didn’t really wash the dishes. The new place will be perfect and amazing and so much better! This magical time period is similar to the honeymoon period at a new job when you have yet to learn the unique ways in which everyone is fucked up and how exactly the dysfunctional relationships between employees dysfunction.

I’ve been at my new apartment for almost two months now, and there is a lot to love about it, but I’ve also discovered the things not to like. For instance, all the neighborhood kids play in the green space behind our building and I get to see and hear them from the full view of the sliding glass door. People also walk their dogs there [...]

• Continue reading "Settling into the new place"