Goodbye, blog drought

Hello motivation to post? I wouldn't get your hopes up, but I will give it a shot.

So, what has happened in the six months? A lot. Also not so much. Not yet, anyway.

By a lot, I meant that plenty has in fact happened: dear friends had deliciously chubby babies, moved to cool places, and did fun things. I have done many of the fun things with them. And then by not so much, I mean that my life hasn't changed all that much - same job, same town, etc. However, all of that is about to change. After years of talking about how I would eventually end up back in Texas, I have taken the plunge (in the form of a new job in Dallas) and am actually moving back in a week. It's still totally surreal, but it has been official for over a month now, and it is really happening.

At this point I am in mostly disbelief that it's actually happening. I mean, I know that I'm changing my addresses and packing boxes to mail to my parents' place and those sorts of things, but the full impact definitely hasn't hit me, and I don't think it really will hit me until I'm driving out of Arlington for the last time. I'm super sad to leave this place - my friends are great, but honestly I'm not mourning them just yet, because I have no doubt I'll see all of them again. And as often as possible. Right now, I'm mourning my favorite haunts and dives...tiny restaurants where I don't have to look at the menu, yellow leaves in the fall, the crab deck in Kent Narrows, skyline drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains...it's a very long list. Because I can come back and do those things, but it won't be the same, because I won't be HERE anymore - it won't ever be a quick jaunt in the middle of a normal week, it will now be a special thing I'm doing in the middle of an unusual trip. Even good changes are crappy ones in some ways, and I'm so feeling it right now.

Also, you should stay tuned for the "I'm so sad why on earth did I move away from so many people that I love" post which will probably happen around October 1, when I have gotten into full swing of missing people. I'm not looking forward to that at all, although I have no doubt it's coming. The catch-22 is that the longer I stay, the harder it will be to go. And I need to go.

So here we go - maybe the revitalization of the blog is just the thing for the next chapter in Texas, where I will still be an ex-pat, just from my Virginia life. I have a feeling that my plane ticket expenditures aren't going to be decreasing any time soon...