Must. Go. Shopping.

I have to go shopping.

While living in Thailand I managed to acquire a pretty extensive summer wardrobe.  I also managed to ruin a pretty extensive summer wardrobe.  With dirty water, really bad washing machines, lots of sunlight and LOTS of sweat, most of my clothes are ruined.

I dreaded the idea of coming back to a New York winter, but I was ecstatic to rediscover my winter wardrobe.  The novelty of that wore off pretty quickly.  I had forgotten all of the cleaning up and clearing out I did before I left for Thailand.  My extensive wardrobe that I was psyched to pick through, had been whittled down to three Rubbermaid bins.  After collecting the stolen items from Erin's closet, I was still unimpressed, but I made do.

Now, I'm running on the bare essentials.  Yes, I just bought too many pairs of heels, which was probably a little silly, but they definitely weren't expensive, and they were my I-got-a-job treat!

Since I have lived in New York I have thrown away two pairs of jeans, one pair of sweat pants and one pair of pajama pants.  I have also thrown away three different shirts and three pairs of flats.  I promise, none of these things could have been donated to anywhere other than the trash.  They were horrible, and had to be thrown away.

And here I am, without much of a wardrobe at all.  This past weekend I went home and switched clothes from New York with clothes I have in Saratoga, but it still won't do the job.  I need to go shopping.

Most of you are probably thinking, okay, stop talking about it, just do it!  Just buy yourself some clothes already!  Here is the problem: I hate shopping.  Hate with a capital "h."  I'm not even going to sugar coat it and use strongly dislike.  I hate it.

Fortunately, I have discovered the beauty of online shopping.  Zappos, for example has free return shipping and returns are allowed for 365 days!  And, with my new sneaker purchase and buying two dresses for Liz's party, I am now a VIP Zappos shopper.  I have to use a special website and everything!  And now I always get free one day shipping. This is the perfect way for me to shop!  Forget real stores, I'm going to become an online shopaholic.  Okay, that's dangerous.  I'll just do my best to not despise shopping.  And I think online might be my golden ticket!

Moving to a new city is hard

I knew that moving to Madison wouldn't be easy, but I have only had the offers for three days and I'm already stressed.

Shopping for an apartment online is a pain.  Shopping for an apartment that allows dogs is a big pain.  And shopping for an apartment that will be available this summer in a city that is mostly made up of college students is a really, really big pain.  Oh, and I'm not even thinking about the location of the apartment!  Let's just say I have spent an ungodly number of hours clicking away on apartment sites only to find out it won't work.  I'm a little frustrated.

I'm feeling stressed.  I don't think I am necessarily stressed, but instead, my nerves have disguised themselves as stress.  And the "stress" is not doing any favors to my face.  Can we say stress blemishes and furrow lines?  I'm just very nervous about the whole thing.  Another new city?  Starting all over again?  A job?  I'm nervous.

Tomorrow I will send my recruiter an email with my decision to take the position that doesn't require travel.  I'm excited for this.  I have already written my references thank you notes, because we all know that they can work wonders, and in this case, they did!  And then I will stay busy with lots of exciting activities in the near future, hoping to keep the stress blemishes at bay.

Just to keep you informed of the exciting things I am looking forward to:

1. My new running shoes should arrive in the mail this week!  I don't care if they aren't the coolest, they are going to feel wonderful on my feet.

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2. I am having lunch with Ann on Wednesday!

3. I am going home on Saturday!

4. Being at home means I get to see Wilbur! (And my family, of course.)

5. I am getting an awesome haircut on Saturday! I'm crossing my fingers for the awesome part.

6. Liz's 25th birthday party is on Saturday night! Wow, I'm starting to feel old. Well, at least I can say I'm employed as I get so old.

7. I bought new shoes for Liz's party.  Okay, I bought lots of new shoes.  I went to DSW with Erin to purchase a pair of black heels for work and a pair of shoes for the party.  I got a little carried away and walked out with five pairs of heels.  A word to the wise: never go to DSW with Erin.  Or Nicole, for that matter.

8. I'm going car shopping this weekend!  I'm not going to tell you about the awesome one I found yet, because I don't want to jinx it.

9. Next Monday starts the NY Auto Show.  Well, not technically, but I start working the event next Monday.

10. Next Thursday I'm headed to Virginia for Allie and Joe's big day!

11. Laura Beth is coming back to New York with me after the wedding for a few days!

Okay, I'm stopping at eleven. But trust me, I could go on. All of these exciting things in the future should definitely be able to keep my stress levels down for a while.  Or, all of these exciting things will keep me busy enough to stress me out more about not making progress on the move. The stress level will just continue to grow and fester under the excitement.  Shoot, that sounds rough.  I'm putting my money on scenario A.  I'm going to be an optimist for this one.