... and ... um ... it's official, and it's big.

I will be moving to South Carolina in the next year.  Because M is going in the next two months.

This is a good thing.  She's been offered a job as a lecturer in the English department, starting in composition, which she's very good at, and moving into her areas, Victorian and children's literature.  The university department sounds extremely excited to have her.  It's got full benefits.  It's guaranteed for the full year and she has been off-the-record assured that there's an excellent chance of the next several years too.  It sounds like their whole philosophy is actually about teaching and teachers, not Prestigious Research Names.  They're family-friendly.  They're excited about having her.

Oh, and did I mention which university it is?  It's Clemson.

I am ... terrified.  I am excited.  I am scared to death.  I am going to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.  This means that I'm going to be here without M for several months, and then I am going to move across the entire continental United States.  This means for the first time we are going to actually have a home of our own.

We'll be alone together for weeks at a time for the first time in our entire relationship.  We'll be able to work without being yelled at to clean up every five minutes.  I'll get to have my own garden.

I've been crying off and on since I found out.  I'm just overwhelmed.  This is so enormous, and so soon .... just.  Wow.

And, just to make this vaguely topical, I've arranged to have Mom fill orders for me while we're back trying to find an apartment, so I shouldn't have to vacation the shop or anything.  This gives me something to do: arrange everything into lettered-and-numbered drawers.  Thiiiis should keep me busy for a while.