I'm homeless!

I moved out of my apartment today. I gave the keys to the landlord at 1 and I don't have anything going on until I met some friends for happy hour at 5 so it's coffee shop time. I'm at the Riverview Cafe which is two blocks from my old apartment and then happy hour is at the Riverview Wine Bar next door so I won't be moving much today.

I have some stuff in storage at my mom's but other than that I have everything in my car and that is one full car. A cousin mentioned that her sister (I guess that would be a cousin too... :) had used the Space Bag (As Seen on TV) so I picked up a few. They are a bit spendy but they are pretty worth it. They vacuum the air out of the bag so you have one dense package that is more compact. I have one bag that has two pillows, a quilt, a full set of sheets and two jackets and it takes up a little more space than one pillow. Not bad.

My friend and new roommate Erika was supposed to fly up today and meet us for happy hour but the world of an airline employee is not confirmed so she wasn't able to make the flight today. She's going to get on the first flight tomorrow and get in around 8 am. I pick her up at the airport, go to Isles Buns and Coffee which is her favorite coffee shop and then we leave town. Talk about an awesome friend. Flying in purely to take a 17 hour road trip. Not to mention letting me stay with her while I look for work in Atlanta. She'd still like to get it done all in day but we'll see. We may spend the night in Kentucky.

I went to my last Twins game on Monday night with my cousin Megan. They won 2-1 so not a bad way to end my dome experience. I was hoping to see Johan Santana pitch for the Mets when they are in Atlanta but no luck with that as he's out for the season with elbow surgery. I'm still hoping to get to a Braves game but I don't care about many NL teams so I won't be picky.

As long as I'm killing all this time at the shop I might as well relate a fun Ted Kennedy/Eunice Shriver story in their memory. I was fortunate to be an intern on his 1994 Senate Fundraising Committee and had the opportunity to go to a few houseparties. On St. Patrick's Day, one of the Lawford women, I can't remember if it was Sydney or Robin, hosted a party and Ted spoke. It was a small gathering so no sound system and it was St. Patrick's Day so there were some Irish jokes mostly making fun of himself. Eunice was standing next to me and couldn't hear the punch lines a few times so she asked me to repeat them. I immediately caught a case of poor hearing myself and apologized for not being able to hear because if Ted wanted to tell them that was one thing but I wasn't about to repeat them to Eunice.

My facebook status the day after Ted died was a repeat from an email that went around saying "In lieu of flowers, pass health care reform." Several people liked it but it also caused a bit of a debate between two others. I didn't get into an argument over it mostly because I remembered Ted's tendency to forgive and forget. He was pretty remarkable with close friendships across the aisle. In fact, the only two times I saw the entire Senate I noticed him and Bob Dole chatting and laughing. To be fair, that's also a testament to Bob Dole and another time when the world was less partisan and saw the work of the Senate as a process rather than a place to create sound bites.

See how wordy I can be when there isn't a TV in front of me :) I haven't seen TV all week as I sold mine and that's been tough. Thank goodness for the internet. It reminds me of when Princess Diana died and I had just moved so no cable then either. At least now the internet is much more robust than in 1997.

I'm going to look up the route for tomorrow! I know in general it's Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and finally Georgia. Unfortunately that's only one new state to cross of my list. Actually two I guess since I've never been to Georgia but I'm moving there tomorrow so that one gets double crossed, It's actually only the second state I'll have lived in since D.C. and Japan aren't states. Interesting... By the way. for anybody that is worried about me living in a Red state... I'll be in a really Blue district and I'm really excited to have John Lewis as my Congressman. A very important figure in civil rights history even if he did beat my old professor for the job.

A Long Break

Wow, it's been a long time. The summer has kind of disappeared on me. Not really any news to report but I promise I'll get better about posting stuff once I move. That's right, I'm moving to Atlanta at the end of the month. I spent quite a bit of time in Bemidji this summer and will again for the next few weeks and then I'll be driving to ATL with my friend Erika at the end of the month so I can look for work there while I stay with her. Pretty awesome friend, huh?

I notice that I last posted the day before I left for Bemidji a few trips ago. It also happened to be the day before Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. Very crazy and sad. I was a big fan and even saw him perform live twice in 1993 for some Clinton inauguration festivities. He was definitely one of the greatest entertainers of all time and the sort of celebrity that we will never see again. With the rise of the internet and so many channels, it is impossible for an entertainer to reach the same proportion of the public that they once could. It's similar to the way that Walter Cronkite was known to so many television viewers but there is no news personality that has the same kind of connection with viewers today due to so many sources of news.

Sorry about the lame postings and lack of them but I promise I'll have lots more when I get to explore Atlanta. I already have plans to run a 5k in October and see a Braves game before the end of the season. They are playing the Mets in September and we're hoping that Santana will pitch and we can cheer for the good New York team.