As I head into my final newscasts at WSET and living in Lynchburg, I’ve been thinking about my move here almost 4 years ago. It’s funny how in such little time, so much of your life can evolve.

Before I moved here, I was at an NBC affiliate in Lake Charles, LA. It was a wonderful place to call home. In fact, I wasn’t very interested in leaving when the job offer from ABC 13 came my way. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith though. I’ve been thinking about signs recently and how they always seem to be undeniable every time I move. I was minutes away from signing another contract in Louisiana when I got the call from the news director here in Virginia. Coincidence? Maybe. But I think that was a pretty big sign. 

So, I packed up my little apartment, my two kitties and headed east. My best friend Janelle MacDonald, also a reporter and anchor in Lake Charles, made the drive with me. She had an interview is Louisville in a few days and decided to ride out with me and catch Kentucky on the way back. It made sense at the time because it was very hard to separate the two of us. We were connected at the hip. My furniture was coming on a moving truck. It wasn’t supposed to show up for a couple of weeks (never book on the internet if you are moving that far) so we stayed in motel for a couple of days. Once Janelle left, I had run out of my motel money, so I stayed in my very sad little apartment on an air mattress on the floor.  Several times I called my mother and said, “What have I done?” Not only did I not know anyone, but I was in an apartment without a TV, furniture, just started a new job -- it was tough.

Fast forward 4 years and sometimes I can’t believe what has happened. That sad woman ended up meeting more genuine, good friends than she could have imagined. She met a guy at a Christmas party in those first couple of months who she ended up falling in love with and marrying. She ended up moving from that little apartment to her very own house. She expanded her animal kingdom from 2 cats to 3 cats and a dog. She’s run marathons, done her first triathlon and more importantly been welcomed into a lot of your homes every morning and then again at lunch time.

So, here I am again, packing up a lot more than a little apartment and heading back down South. I’m excited for the next leg, honored to be promoted to this new position and beside myself to live AT THE BEACH. But I’m also a little sad to close the book on this part of my life. The good thing about books is that you can always pick them up and read them again. This was a good one so I’m pretty sure I’m not through with it yet.

While most people will be out enjoying the glorious weekend weather, I will be suffering from the stifling temperatures in my attic. Yes, it’s time to pack up the attic. It’s a chore I’ve kind of put off until last simply because it was stifling all week long by the time I got home from work everyday. I also wanted to share the joy of packing that part of the house with my husband (wink, wink).

Last night we were devising a plan to conquer it all. I suggest getting up bright and early Saturday morning before it gets too hot up there. The husband seems to think we should just do it when we want…and bring things down from the attic and pack on the second floor. To me, this is a wasted effort. We bring things down…then pack? Why not save myself the moving down the stair effort? Plus, as it stands we are running out of room for boxes and fast. We haven’t reached a consensus yet on what steps to take. I’m sure it will be a dicey discussion.

Enjoy YOUR weekend and think about me sweating up in the attic!

As of today, it’s 7 days left in my home – 5 at WSET. This week has been a little bit better as far as building the Myrtle Beach house. I’ve gotten several updates via email from the builder and the realtor – and some really great pictures. I cannot wait for my nice new KITCHEN! 

My mother-in-law has been a God send this week. She has come by and spent her afternoons helping me pack up the house. Our big feat is having the entire kitchen in boxes already. That took the better part of 3 hours. We had a huge stack of boxes awaiting all the items from our life – every single one of them is now full. I need to go on a box run today before we can continue. I think I may take a break from boxing this afternoon to breath.

I’ve also started to say goodbye – and that is making the reality of it all set in. A couple that I’m good friends with left yesterday for vacation and won’t be back before we leave.   I had not shed many tears yet but the facet opened when I gave Holly a hug. Then Turner said, “Don’t worry this isn’t goodbye for good.” To which I replied, “Yeah, but you are the first I’m saying goodbye to. And you won’t live down the street anymore.” Then I almost cried at my last haircut at Volume Salon. I’ve been going to see Randy for almost 4 years now – he knows more about me than a lot of people do. As I started to well up with tears I thought, “Get it together Danner – Randy will think you are nuts if you start bawling in the middle of the salon.” I have a feeling this is only the beginning for Cry Fest ’08.