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At present, I am swimming in joy.  I am printing out business cards and brochures to give to prospective friends and professional contacts in Chicago, while listening to music by my friend Paul’s fabulous band Aridne.  I am still sick (it’s morphed into some nasty sinus blob), and I’m sitting on my floor at a makeshift lap desk (as I sold my desk for $50 today), sipping one chai after another (despite the fact that milk does nothing to promote sinus clarity).  I continue throughout this transition to be amazed at how drive and productivity spike when you’re navigating the right path for yourself.  I feel a mounting anticipation for all the wonderful things I’m going after in the very immediate future.

Wow!  The other day, I wrote my raised-on-a-farm-in-Wisconsin friend Gary, who was such a tremendous help to me in countless ways while I was in Stuttgart, to tell him I was moving to Chicago. I just heard back from him, and it turns out he’s in Milwaukee right now and will likely be able to meet me in Chicago for lunch before he heads back to Germany in a week.  I am already looking forward to seeing him again.  Gary is one of those people who makes his surroundings better wherever he goes.  And he has the cutest Midwestern accent!!

I wanted to get my car out of my hair (and the apartment parking lot) before I left for Chicago tomorrow. I got a few somewhat weird inquiries about it after listing it on CL for $500, but they didn’t come through. So, today I listed it for FREE. True, I probably could have gotten a couple hundred bucks for it, but the idea of making someone’s day with a free car was more exciting to me than the prospect of a little bit of money.

The sweetest girl from Georgia contacted me about it and says she loves Hondas and wants to learn how to work on her own cars. On the phone, I felt as though I was listening to myself, back before I started globetrotting and making more of an effort to speak universal English. People have been telling me since I moved back to the US from Germany that my Texas accent is coming out more. This makes me smile. It feels like putting on an old pair of jeans that fit just right.