Moving ... and Meme!

We move nine days from now. Nine. We still have so much to do. Like pack.

Kidding - kind of. I've started packing and donating stuff, but E. hasn't yet. Unfortunately, he's a pack rat. Almost all of the stuff in our capacious closets and storage space is his.

In fact, E. has so much stuff that he also rents a 5' X 7' storage unit at our local Self Storage Plus.

We're also still going over applications of possible rent tenants for our house here in Washington. And we're closing on the house we're buying in Lake Tahoe. So I'm pretty anxious right now.

One good thing is that we found a nice place in L.A. to rent that takes dogs (hard to find), and is in a great area -- Old Town Pasadena - within walking distance of shops, restaurants, parks, Cal Tech, and the Gold Line of L.A.'s fairly new subway system. However, it's smaller than our house, so besides driving a 26' truck across the country, we have to stop at E.'s mom's house in northern California so she can store some furniture for us.

Yes, we're juggling three places, and four if you count the condo we own in Washington, D.C., as well. Talk about a real estate adventure.

Running: I woke up too late to join my long-run group last Sunday, so I ran 15 miles alone yesterday. It wasn't too bad. I knocked them out in 2:19 and change. Average pace was 9:16/mile.

I did have to make an unplanned pitstop at Mile 11, though. Thank goodness for National Airport. The trail I ran on goes right by there. I walked in sweaty, wild-eyed, and smelly, amongst dark-suited men and women with their impeccable wheeled luggage, to use the facilities. I'm not surprised they gave me a wide berth.

Question Bex: I read a meme here that I thought would be fun to do.

Jobs I've Held
Hostess at Skinny Haven, a restaurant that served only low-fat and low-cal food. Next to a Jack Lalanne's fitness center, natch.
Cashier for a hypnotist who "helped" people quit smoking.
Waittress while in grad school at an underground bistro popular with professors and college students.
Journalist (my main gig for past 9 years)
Communications consultant/writer (my new gig)

Movies I can watch over and over
Blade Runner
Thelma & Louise
A Room With a View
Night on Earth
Breaking Away

My guilty pleasures
Coconut sorbet with coffee liquer and candied almond slivers
Buying magazines full-price instead of subscribing to them
Going to Hawaii twice in one year (my 2nd trip is in December, for the Honolulu Marathon)
Hiring a housecleaner 2X/month
Starbucks Doubleshots. Every day.

Places I have lived
San Fernando, Philippines
Sierra Madre, CA
Claremont, CA
Fayetteville, AR
Washington, DC
St. Petersburg, FL
Richmond, VA
Bethesda, MD
Alexandria, VA

Shows I enjoy (three of them alas, not on right now)
Dexter
Six Feet Under
The Riches
Entourage

Places I've been on vacation
Paris
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam
Hong Kong
Beijing
London and Oxford, England
Brussels, Belgium
Edinburgh, Scotland
North Carolina's Outerbanks
Langkawi, Malaysia
Boracay, Philippines
Lake Tahoe
Miami
Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island of Hawaii
New York City

Favorite Foods (a lot, here's a short list)
Sushi
North Carolina BBQ
Chinese cuisine (the real stuff, not the gloppy goo you get at most Chinese restaurants catering to Westerners)
Homemade green tea ice cream
In-N-Out burgers & fries

Websites I visit daily
The Washington Post
Google
Yahoo

Body parts I've injured
Sprained right arm in 2nd grade
Blackened many toenails from running
Sprained right foot while running
Tendinitis in forearms from practicing piano too much

Awards I've won
A couple of newswriting awards
A couple of piano performance awards
A few running awards (e.g. first female overall in a 5K; winner, co-ed division of marathon relay)

Nicknames I've been called
Garvey (after 70's Dodgers player Steve Garvey - I have a good arm)
Speedy Gonzales
Sugarplum
Rio

Okay: Enough diversion. Gotta keep packing ...