Workflow question: moving photos from laptop to external in same catalog

Hi,
I was hoping to change my workflow a bit and would appreciate some advice. Currently, I do all work on my Macbook attached to an external monitor, keyboard and firewire external drive. I have a single catalog that encompasses all photos on that external. New photos go from CF card to an 'unfiled' directory on the external. After keywording, rating, deleting and processing, those files get moved to the appropriate folder (people/places/things with their subdirectories).
I would like instead to load photos directly to the Macbook hard drive and have that be the 'unfiled' directory. When I'm done with the above workflow, I would then connect the external and, ideally, move the photos directly to those folders (within Lightroom). I know I can do this by running separate catalogs and doing an export/import function. I was hoping to be able to do this as seamlessly as I do now. Is it possible to do all of this within the one 'main' catalog that serves both the Macbook hard drive as the 'unfiled' directory and all other folders on the external? By the way, that catalog file currently resides on the external.
Thanks!
E

Eric-
Thanks for the post.
What I do now as far as organization is to dump the photos into directories based on location (ie state/city) or, more importantly, kids name/year/month. I would prefer to keep that level of organization in addition to my keywords.
I'm also realizing it's pretty stupid for me to keep the catalog file on the external. I'll move it to the Macbook now (I can just do that with the finder, right?) and am wondering, can I comfortably run the one catalog with it pointing to a 'laptop' folder when not connected to the external (and show the 'external drive folders' in red) and then have it properly find and read the folders on the external when reattached??
Thanks again,
E

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