"Goin' to Carolina in my mind..."

It's pretty hard to focus on my work in New York knowing I only have 2 more weeks here. My sister and I drove a Penske truck down to Raleigh on Friday after work with nearly everything from my apartment in it.

We got in around 4am and then my parents and I left for Charleston at 7am on Saturday.

Luckily we found two great houses, but my heart was set on one. Here it is:

The selling point was the backyard and porch:

Winston will be able to go between the backyard and garage all day while I'm at work (which makes him happy) and I won't have to come home and let him out at lunch or worry he's getting my house all dirty (which makes me happy!)  I'll be spending all of my free time on the porch, which gets great sun on one side.  Hopefully I'll get even more needlepoint done now that I can sit outside and do it.

The house is on James Island and is a five minute drive from work and the dog beach.  I'm really looking forward to going to Harris Teeter and being able to put my groceries in my car!  No more breaking my arms trying to lug my groceries back to my apt!  I'm also really excited to drive to work--after someone had an "accident" on the stairs leading down to my subway station this morning, I started counting the number of times I'll have to take the E train again (only 16).  But the best part...I don't have to wear coats, scarves, and boots for 3 months of the year!

Last night we had a girls going away dinner at Bistro Lamazou.  It was great that everyone was able to come and looking around at the table, I got kind of sad thinking that I was leaving the first group of girlfriends I've ever had.  I hope I'm able to find a good group down there because they've really been such a blessing.  A lot of things have happened in the last year and having them has helped me immensely.  I will definitely be back to visit--and I'm sure after the first snowstorm, they'll all be down to visit me!