Agh.

It's been a crazy week.

Friday marked my last day as an American attorney, at least for the foreseeable future. The folks on my team took me to lunch and then held a really nice party for me that night. (Thanks to Meredith for hosting and Ashley for organizing -- you guys are the best.) Some of you may be wondering exactly what I plan to do with myself, now. We will discuss this issue in another post, dear readers, probably when I am drunk and weepy.

Saturday through Monday I was in Memphis, visiting my wonderful friend Chris Allen (not to be confused with the other Chris, to whom I am married). We went to Graceland, Stax Records, walked around the Mississippi River front, ate oysters, ate barbecue, drank a lot of beer. A rather flawless Memphis weekend, if I dare say.

Monday morning I returned to Atlanta to find the proverbial feces hitting the proverbial fan. Okay, I'm being dramatic. Everything is fine. No one has lost a limb, or an eye, or even their sense of smell. It's just that with only two weeks to go before I leave for NZ, it seems as if all of the details are a little crazy. This is going to require bullet points.

• I sold my car. This, in itself, is really great.* But because I was slack and sloppy and moved around a lot in my 20s and have no idea what I did with the title, I had to spend four soul-killing hours at the DMV's title office trying to get all of the paperwork together. I seriously aged about five years during that visit.
  

• I've spent the last two days on the phone trying to correct a $500 overcharge by my vet clinic. (Issue is now resolved.)

• I finally got my NZ permanent residency visa, but they issued it in my maiden name. Long story short, I think I should be able to get into NZ okay (cross your fingers) but I will need to resolve this upon arrival.
  

• My back is all screwed up. This happens to me periodically, but I'm in a lot of pain and this is making my attitude rather sour. I also think it is some kind of cosmic retribution because I was so cocky about finishing the half marathon. Last week = best shape of my life. This week = hobbling around and smelling like Ben Gay.
  

• I got a call from the vet clinic this morning that the brilliant lab workers in Kansas that were running the dogs' blood tests (Yes. The dogs' blood work has to go to freakin' KANSAS, or the NZ gov't won't accept it) actually LOST Livy's blood sample. Nevermind that both blood samples were sent in the same UPS package. So the poor little pumpkin and I are heading back to the vet this afternoon so she can have even more blood drawn.

• Verizon Wireless is an agent of the devil. This is all I can manage to say about that incident.

I apologize, dear readers, for such a dark, whiny, self-involved post. Like I said, in the scheme of things, everything is rolling along -- just hitting a few speedbumps, ha ha. Next time: Bright and Sunny "Kia Ora, Y'all" posts will be back! Moving to New Zealand is a hoot!

* Devoted Atlanta readers, please note that I am now relying on you and the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority to cart me around. Thank in advance.