The Drive

I can honestly say with 99% assurance that I will never move across country again. Unless the entire eastern half of the United States falls off the face of the planet, I'm staying put. Our drive from Arizona to Georgia was complete within two days.


You may ask, "Trisha, how many miles was that drive?"

"Why, just a simple and straight 2017 miles," I'll reply.


But even one mile driven simple and straight can be, well, quite dull. Now multiply that 2017 times, and suddenly a simple and straight 2017 mile drive is no easy task. Especially when you're in the car with no one but a nervous and uncomfortable pup to talk to. I drove my MINI with the pup in the front passenger seat. Carlton drove his Nissan and zoned out while listening to a book on tape and following the little red ZipZip in front of him.


Now you might be wondering, "Trisha, if you drove 2017 miles in two days all by yourself while the Hub listened to a book on tape, how did you stay awake and keep yourself entertained?"

"Well," I would so pridefully answer, "on Day 1 of our drive through Texas, I discovered an All-Aerosmith-All-The-Time radio station. SCORE! Now imagine to yourself, My Inquisitive Friend, my relief when I realized that the nervous little pup next to me would calm down when I sang aloud in the car. And then imagine my immediate giggle-worthy reaction to my own silly self as I realized I was having fun when I made funny faces to the beat of the music... Steven Tyleresque faces. And then, when my face got tired, Curious Friend, I sang in the most obnoxious opera voice I could muster."

Being alone in a straight-driving car for that long will lead a girl to do some crazy things.


By 6:00 am on Saturday we left our house in Scottsdale, Arizona and wheeled out onto I-10 (which eventually puked out into I-20). Then some time around 1:00 am we arrived in Fort Worth, Texas and stayed for the night. By 9:00 am we hit 80 mph once again, and stopped in Macon, Georgia at my best friend Chelsea's for the night around 10:30. I woke up around 8:00 am with the pup and let Carlton sleep until about 10:30 (thanks, Chels, for letting us take our time that morning!). My sister met us there and followed us the last 2 hours down to our final destination, and our new home, Moultrie, Georgia.

*Finally-Content Sigh.*

On the road again

Well not quite yet, but this lovely 27' package showed up this morning:


Oh, dear, this is totally intimidating.

eww.

forgive the transitional mess. trying to find something pretty to look at.

The sale stats

I was really excited about posting our yard sale online, especially because it was a free service. (Thanks for the info, Nesting Place, I'll always go to that site to advertise and look up sales!). I was ready for visitors roaring for our sleeper sofa and mattress set. I was prepared to sell a few things that would hurt to go, but would help with the move and were not necessarily needed or used anymore.

We made almost $300 without selling our souls... or the mattress... or the sofa. But these $300, well, they're $300 we didn't have before we sold everything except this:


I'd call it a success, especially because I was complimented on my talent for sign placement and directional assistance! These neon yellow arrows and large letters were complimented by an avid yard sale-er, who complained of having to give up on possible great deals all too often because of poor signage.


I was sad to sell an entire set (plus a piece) of cute girl luggage for $28, but hey, that's major cash at a yard sale, and those suitcases and purses had just about seen their last days. Two young sisters who like to play "airplane" will love these pretty and sophisticated "toys" for a while.

A large rattan chair and side table went for a healthy $25. I'm still sad that they're gone, because I've had them since I was a little girl. But they were starting to give up on life a little, and a model home staging associate purchased them to spray paint and stage on one of her company's properties.

Don't cry, Vicki, but that 5 gallon vat of Ben Moore beige/yellow paint you gave to us, which never made it onto the walls because it was oil base, went for $20 to a very happy Hispanic husband and wife. They also got a great deal on a DVD player ($5) and like-new sewing machine ($50).

Lots of bulky, never-warn, and never-to-be-warn-again-in-south-Georgia winter sweaters went for $1 each, and I was glad to see them go.

Another Hispanic lady wanted to purchase my set of drinking glasses, but I couldn't bare the thought of drinking from Dixie cups until another sale hits Crate&Barrel kitchen goods. So the glasses stayed.

One guy proudly toted our beloved Coleman charcoal grill to the bed of his pickup truck after only paying $8 for it.

An iron with a scratchy point (the very tip on the front of the ironing surface) sold for $5. It got dropped, the tip got scratched from the fall, and so it made tiny little pulls on delicate clothes. I just bought a new one a few weeks ago, so with the $5 "reimbursement" from the old iron, I only paid $24.99 for my new appliance. Hooray! Also, that annoying hang-over-the-door ironing board went for $4, and the pad was all burned and really thin. So technically I have a new $24.99 iron and no board to iron it on, but hey, it doesn't scratch up my clothes.

Too bad we didn't have the original Nintendo or Sega games for that 20-year-old guy with the Ipod in his snap-up thrift store shirt pocket and "tragic" hairstyle.

And then there was my drafting table. Oh, that drafting table. It was my beloved, my friend, my enemy, my crutch for four very tough years. It withstood move-ins and move-homes and move-backs-into-crappy-apartments. It survived a move into a newlywed apartment in Buford, and a move across country to Scottsdale, Arizona. It loved a good Windex wipe-off and held onto just enough paint to make me happy that it had been used well. It served well, with its little catch-all open art bin attached to the side, as a large and in charge sewing table, cutting table, and crafting table. I staged a number of blog photos atop its pristine white surface. And now it's paying for about 10 gallons of gas to send me back home. Oh drafting table, my drafting table, how I will miss thee. (Okay, okay, so maybe I sold my soul just a little in this case.)

The 7' tall shutters didn't sell. Mostly because I priced them at $40 and wouldn't budge for even our lovely neighbor. I like how they look as the headboard of a bed, or to cover an otherwise naked wall. They don't take up a lot of space in the moving truck, anyway. :)

Carlton's beloved toaster oven didn't sell. For some reason, the Hubster loves that toaster oven. It probably didn't sell because I didn't feel like cleaning out all the cinnamon raisin and cheese toast crusty crumbs from the bottom. Hub is pleased.

So to all the things we sold, thank you. And to all the things we didn't, PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU, PACK EASILY, LIGHTLY, AND QUICKLY!!! We're outta here and headed for home in...

FOUR DAYS????

Four days it is!

Garage Sale

We're selling off as much as we can to make the move back home. If you're in the area, follow the neon yellow arrows and take a look! Actually, follow the arrows at either Thunderbird & 60th Street or Greenway & 60th Street, and buy our stuff!

Click here to see our garage sale online advertisement and map with easy-to-follow Google Maps directions!

Queen sleeper sofa

Queen mattress set

7' folding shutters (we used these as a partition, or as the headboard wall for our bed)

Cute girly luggage, easy to find at baggage claim! (Carry-on case, duffel bag, square shoulder bag, and carry-on purse)

PLUS lots more, including:
small Chrismas tree and lights
drafting table
electronics
sewing machine
small kitchen appliances

We're also serving ice cold drinks and water for $1 for refreshment!

A-Buuuuuuuhhhh....

I know that because this story backs right up to my Tonsilloliths post, I might just sound like a total hypochondriac. However, these few things just piled up on me all at once! I think my body and surrounding infectious attack agents knew I would need extra energy because of all this packing and moving stress. And it's all hitting me at once!

While on our cruise with the families (check out my many pictures posted about a week ago), I had my mom take a look at a mole that I have had on the back side of my scalp pretty much all my life. Because I had a feeling it might be changing a little, and because she has always sort of kept an eye on it for me (because it's on the back side of my scalp where I can't really see it), I had her take a look. She was concerned that it had changed and maybe even grown a little since the last time she had seen it, and urged me to see a dermatologist as soon as we were back from our vacation.

(I can't stop thinking of Austin Powers every time I type the word mole. Watch this scene as well as this scene and finally this scene to understand why it's... A-BUUUUUUUUH... hilarious!!!)

Friday afternoon I called a local dermatologist and made an appointment to have the mole evaluated on Tuesday (this morning) at 11:00. Once I got off the phone, I decided to myself that even if the mole was deemed healthy and not at any risk of being a problem, I still wanted to have it removed. Why? Well, it's just a really big mole. And, even though it's hidden by my thick and massive hair, it is always a big issue when I have my hair cut.

So the weekend passed and I went into work for a morning shift, from 8:00 until 1:00 on Monday. During my work in the studio, I noticed that my elbow was super itchy. And there were a few little bumps on it, like a mosquito had gotten to it in the middle of the night or early in the morning.

I shrugged it off and went about my work, but by the time I got home around 1:30, these itchy welts were getting bigger, and the three "bites" had turned into about seven or eight pink, warm, intensely itchy welts. And my right arm had a few now, too. But since I tend to get pretty big welts from mosquitoes anyway, I just kept shrugging it off like it was nothing.

But the itching. I mean, come ON! It was insane.

Once I got home and changed from my yucky, glaze-splattered work clothes, I noticed that my legs were itching as well. Now I had welts on both my arms and both my legs. And they were getting itchier and bigger and they were all little hot spots. I called my mom and asked her what she thought they might be. We ruled out a second round of chicken pox (I had them when I was little), and we ruled out shingles. With my mom, I still decided this was probably a super-hungry mosquito, or maybe even a few fleas, that got into the bedroom on Sunday night and ate me alive.

Luckily, since I already had this dermatologist appointment scheduled for this morning, I was able to ask her about my "bites" as well as show her the moley-moley-moley on my head. First, we talked about my mole, and I told her that even if there was no risk in keeping it, I wanted it removed. She got out a few tools and got set up immediately! Wow, I thought this would require a consultation, a biopsy, and a separate appointment to have it removed. And here she was, ready to go! Woohoo! She took a look at my mole and decided she wouldn't want it staying anyway, because the side of it I thought might have gotten a little bigger was the side that she thought was a little irregularly shaped. Yes, it was big enough to have sides!

Once she numbed the area with a tiny needle, she just sliced it right off. A little topical cream to keep any germs out, and she was done. Then she took a look at my legs and arms. "Whoa! I bet you're ready to crawl out of your skin! This is some kind of rash, I'd say." Who knows what I got into, or what I got on me, or what Vespa got into and got on me, but it's something that my skin does not agree with. I mean, look at this! These are a few pictures of the spots on my arms and one spot on one of my legs. Are you itching yet?


I have a steroid in pill form to take every day as well as a topical cream to put on twice a day. I'm not starting the steroid until tomorrow, but I put the cream on as soon as I got home from the pharmacy. The itching has gone away a little, and hopefully it'll go away totally pretty soon.

Now I am a clean-tonsil (I'm instantly down 10 notches to the rank of "normal morning breath" now!!! Be so happy for me!), mole-free, itchy person. And hopefully the itchy part will stop very soon!