I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in Duct Tape

So.

Short version: My parents are moving to North Carolina in June, and since I live with them and work retail and so can't afford a place on my own, I'm moving to North Carolina in June.

Less short version: My parents are moving to North Carolina in June. I really don't want to go with, but working retail means that, even with my credit cards payed off and my car loan refinanced to a lower rate, I can't afford a place of my own in order to stay up near Chicago. I've met with loan officers and bank people, and there's really no way I'll be able to stay here. By this point - we leave June 6th - I've accepted that fact that I have to go (at least for now - I'm holding out hope that it won't be permanent) and am packing up everything I own. I'm transferring to a store down there, so I'll have a job at least when we get there, even if we won't really have a place to live.

Yeah. The closing on our current house is May 27th and we don't have a house down there yet. The main reason is that my parents won't know how much they have to spend until after the closing. The other reason is that the house was supposed to be on the market for at least 6 months, to give my parents time to look around down in NC and figure out where they'd like to live.

The house was only on the market about 2 months.

So, we're moving in with my sister and her husband in NC for at least a couple of weeks (hopefully not more) until we can find a place to rent - with a fenced in backyard for Dixie - while my parents decide what they're doing. They're either going to go with a Modular Home or a newer (5 years old or less) home. But again, won't know where we stand until after the closing.

I'm less against the move since we found out that my sister's pregnant with her first kid, but I still don't want to leave my friends and my home. I'm trying to look at it as a positive thing - "A new life, under new stars" kind of thing. Change is good, right? There could be something so good waiting for me down there, but I won't know until I get there.

In the meantime, I'm as packed as I can get right now. Everything else is going to have to wait to be packed until the last few days before the move. My last day at work is June 3rd, and there's a party at nearby bar that night. I'm taking the week of the 6th as a vacation week, and I'll start at my new store on the 13th.

I just keep telling myself, New stars. New stars.