I have made it to North Carolina! Last weekend Melissa & her mom & I packed up my house and then Saturday we loaded the truck with the help of several other friends. That night Carrie & Alyson & I drove down to my parents' house, where we overnighted before making the 9-hour trip to Durham. Sunday evening, we got everything moved in down here. The 3 of us lovely ladies really did it all - so we felt kinda like superheroes :-D They helped me unpack a bunch and we also got to spend a few days looking around the area. So grateful to have had all the help I had - packing, loading, moving, unloading! Don't know what I would have done without my friends for all of that. :) During this past week I got business taken care of - library & bank accounts, new license & license plate, bought my books, met with my advisor, etc.! Then my friend Laura-Lee was down from Friday night to this morning and we bought me some things I needed like a bed and some little cabinets to put around the apartment. It's coming together! :) Classes start a week from today, but orientation is this week, so there are various events here & there. I'm pretty terrified of going to some of those things by myself - that's very hard for me, but that's the way I've got to do it to make friends.

Anyway I like the area where I'm living, I like my apartment, and so far the whole area here seems nice. It's pretty hot but I guess it'll be nicer in the winter!!! :) Oh, and did I mention? I loove Southern food :-D We used to have this chain Bojangles in Louisville and slowly they all went out and my family was so sad because we used to pick up lunch there on the weekends all the time, and I loved the fried chicken & their seasoned fries & dirty rice. And when we started getting within like 100 miles of Durham there were Bojangles signs for like every exit and I was like, sa-weet, I'm so excited! I ate there with Carrie & Alyson and with Laura-Lee, and it was just as good as I remembered! Not to mention the one on the week-day lunch was *packed* so I guess I can feel secure that not all of the milion of them in a short radius from me will be going out anytime soon. Plus Carrie, Alyson, & I went to this neat place called Carolina Brewery in Chapel Hill and I had some killer shrimp & grits. I have always loved grits so people have joked that I am Southern on the inside. I guess just without the accent.

That's all for now! Just an update since everal people have been joking that I must have fallen off the face of the earth or been trapped under a dresser or something :) It's been a very busy week takin' care of business!