jet lag!

Okay, not really. For some reason though, this trip exhausted me. I think the month or so of constant swim lessons, lifeguarding, and otherwise intense mental activity (related to making decisions about my future) caught up with me on the plane to Dallas, and thus I spent most of the time I wasn't interviewing or getting lost sleeping.

So, I'm moving in two months. To Plano- I may have mentioned the apartment I was going to look at, well, it's awesome, it's cheap, and it's got a creek and preserve running behind the property. I'm in love. Perhaps it's not the most perfect place I could find- the community is a little older, the upstairs shower is a stall, and there's only washer/dryer hookup (although I think that's standard of all of these condo-esque places), the pool is tiny and curvy not suited to lap swimming, etc. But then, every place has its downsides.

As per Dallas and the area itself, I'm not a big fan. The creek behind this apartment was the deal breaker for me- I've got to have some sort of nature to escape to from the flat suburbs of the surrounding area. It has its pretty places, fields and clumps of trees, but I can tell I'll be drinking in all the nature I can handle in San Diego until then. The cut of a mountain against the sky, the shape of hills and valleys, the cliffs and beaches of the ocean- all of these are things I must learn to do without. I did it in Wisconsin, of course, but I'm insanely in love with Wisconsin and its farmland and subtle hills and lakes and forests. Insanely.

However, I am doing this for money. See, I'll be making more than I know what to do with. More money in the first month than I've EVER had in my bank account. As much as I hate to be that way- well I can't help it. We need money in this society like it or not, and if I want to change paths and forge a different life then I should be confident I can finance it. Three years or so in Texas, then we'll see. Perhaps grad school. Perhaps the east coast and activism. Perhaps I'll get extraordinarily good at trombone and win the Rhythm and Brass audition (I'm projecting). Sigh.

Though, I am excited. This apartment is awesome, I get to share it with Chris, I get to meet new people and be out truly on my own and make my own decisions again. I plan on seeing Jason as often as possible, and making trips to NOLA and Albuquerque and other places whenever possible. During the summer (see, I get summers off!) I can go visit Bethany in Germany. There's still living to be done, and now that everything's settled I'm anxious to be doing it. Two months! It will seem to go by slow, but it'll be fast like ripping off a bandaid and soon enough it'll be Ani's concert on July 27th and the next day I'll be headed out with my stuff packed into every nook of my car. Just like a run-on sentence, it'll be.

Between now and then I still need to have a summer fling, visit Jennii in LA, send Adam off to Boston, think about Jerry getting settled in New York and write lots more poetry. It'll be a busy summer.