It’s been a bit quiet around here and I hope you’ll forgive me. My family has just completed a move from Long Island, NY to Waco, TX and I think (knock on wood) we’re all settled in now and I can get back to writing and editing. It takes a lot of people to make a move successful and I wanted to take a moment and thank just a few of them.

First, thanks Mom for driving out from Pennsylvania to help me pack. My husband (who took a new job in TX) had to move out thirty days before the house could close, so I had to take care of most of the packing myself. My mother took time off of work to come out for a few days and help me pack boxes and load the Pods, which made the work go so much quicker. We’re both musical nerds, so we spent time singing Broadway show tunes to pass the time and she is the reason I finally listened to Hamilton on the drive from NY to TX and I fell in LOVE! Thank so much, Mom!

Next, a big thanks to my brother and his fiance for driving to and from Long Island in the space of a single day all to take a TV off my hands. I didn’t want to throw it away because it’s still a great TV but over Black Friday, we’d bought a new smart TV and didn’t have any use for the old one. If you’ve never driven across the bridges to get to Long Island once, then it’s impossible to imagine the pain of having to do it twice in a day, but it meant a lot, so thank you, brother and soon-to-be-sister!!

Finally, a huge, huge thanks to my father-in-law who flew in from California, rented a massive Suburban (that’s a story in itself), and helped us make the actual drive from NY to TX. You see, I have two greyhounds, two cats, an iguana and a snake, and I couldn’t fit all six of them into two vehicles, never mind the fact that it’s winter in New York and the reptiles had to stay warm or else they could die. With the seats laid flat in the Suburban, the two reptile tanks could slide in side-by-side (with a barrier between them to keep the snake from making faces at the iguana) and my father-in-law kept the heat set to about seventy for the entire drive to make sure they stayed nice and warm, and helped us move the tanks in and out of hotel rooms each day. This was no small feat and I and the reptiles appreciate all you did for us, so thank you very much!

I also have to thank my vet for being willing to see me up to the very last minute before our move. At first, all I needed was a little extra medication for my dogs until we got set up with a vet in Texas (both my dogs are hypothyroid). Then, my female greyhound managed to injure the leg she already limps on due to an old racing track injury, so we had to get antibiotics for that. Then, literally the day before the move, my old-lady cat was straining to pee and bleeding from a sensitive area, so I bustled her off to the vet. We were lucky that it wasn’t an obstruction or a bladder infection, but I learned that sometimes when cats are stressed, they can pee blood and they recommended that I stop stressing out my cat–which, of course, is not an easy thing to do when you’re about to stuff your cat inside a box for a three-day car trip. But I got some calming spray and I’m happy to say the cat has settled in very well in Texas with no repeat of her stress-symptoms. It’s hard when all these things go wrong the week of a big move, but I suppose it’s because the animals know a change is coming without really understanding what all is about to happen. Poor things!

The long and short of it is: My family and I are in Texas now! It’s much warmer here than it was in New York, for which I am grateful. The house is big and beautiful, my dogs love the yard and everyone seems happy–or at least, happy that the move is finally over. Now that utilities are finally all set up and we’ve unpacked all the boxes, I’m looking forward to getting back to editing and writing regularly once again.

Oh, and of course: Happy New Year to you all!