Insomnia and an Empty Stomach

Today will be my last day in Gainesville. I’m currently at my parent’s home and the Cooking Channel is on, playing old Iron Chef America episodes. Sentimentality and the such has been plaguing my mind. This is only natural with the course of moving, however. I wouldn’t expect any less. I may have shed a few more girly tears last night as I packed up the rest of my belongings and spent my last night in my tiny, lovable apartment. I called my lovely sister and her boyfriend and talked about the subject of moving. They provided words of wisdom, humor and comfort. They’re really the best.

Its been sort of weird that with all the change, I haven’t really been too hungry. Usually I eat everything within grasp and then some. I love food. I mean…obviously I do. I just haven’t had an appetite. The strange side effects of moving. With that also comes insomnia. Maybe I’m just a strange duck and that’s how my body combats all the change. I haven’t been super crazy emotional so I’m assuming this is how my body has been dealing with it.  Going to bed at 4am and waking up at 8am is not my idea of a good time but within the week I’ll have to get back on a regular sleep schedule. Orientation day starts next Monday at begins as early as 6:45am. I need to get in gear, for reals.

Packing and moving is stressful but it’s totally worth it. I promise you that. I spent the last little bit of my evening, before driving back to my parents’ home, on my porch. Thinking about how much everything has changed since I received my acceptance letter back on Christmas Eve is mind boggling. Friendships have come and gone, relationships have ended, my parents have finally accepted my leap into adulthood, and I finished up my time and graduated from U.F. It’s all very surreal.

One of the many sunsets from the view on my porch.

Wednesday will start the long road trip up to New York and while it is daunting, it’s all about the next step in life. It feels unnatural and yet natural all at the same time. Oh, life changes! How you amuse me. What will really be interesting is how I’ll get everything in my car. I leave you with this…

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.”-Brian Tracy

Happy Eatings!

Packing Procrastination

There is something absolutely horrendous about packing up my kitchen. I procrastinate. I pace. I fiddle with the boxes. I do anything but pack it. Basically it comes down to this, I do not want to pack my kitchen. I love my tiny kitchen. It’s small like me. It has ok storage and while somewhat messy, I know where every ingredient is and where I hide my chocolate. I love my fridge with the millions of magnets, pictures and recipes on it. It has been the soul of my apartment for the past four years and it is, without a doubt, the hardest room to pack.

Packing away my favorite place.

I know that this is unreasonable since I move in 7 days and absolutely have to move everything out and put it into storage. I finished my last day of work yesterday and planned it this way so I would be able to spend time carefully packing and deciding what to keep and what to store/give away. It has been quite rainy in Gainesville the past few days and today is another one of those days which doesn’t help matters. While writing this, I have Julie and Julia on and I’m sipping a large cup of coffee. I’d rather have a glass of wine but its only the afternoon and I don’t live in France…and I have to pack. See! The procrastination continues! *About an hour later, I decided to pour the little bit of white wine that I had left and baked a pseudo grape and feta naan pizza. It was needed.*

Feta and Grape Naan Pizza

Besides my kitchen debacle, seeing friends and saying our goodbyes has not been a ball of fun either. My little family of friends has grown even tighter over the past six months and knowing I wont see them for a bit is quite heart wrenching. It usually ends up with me driving away from them trying to hide my teary eyes. How girly of me.

On the bright side, The Culinary Institute of America called me the other day to check up and see how things were going with my preparations to move. I’m not going to lie, it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside that they checked up on me. I chatted with the admissions lady and made sure my paperwork was sent in and approved and we talked about orientation.

So many emotions and feels are flying around but it is all part of the process. In my opinion, that shows how much it all means to me. Change is scary yet necessary in life. So, I leave you with this…

“You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place, I told him, like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.”-Azar Nafisi

Happy Eatings!