Tomorrow Clint has a talk with his boss as they try to figure out when exactly his last day will be. We are thinking that the 13 of April will be the last day he goes to work, and we will be moved out of our apartment by the 19th. That is less than a MONTH! I am finally at the stage that I find myself daydreaming about what it will be like to live in Austin. For those of you who know me, you know that in the past I have been a bit....negative about Texas. (For those of you who love Texas I know it is hard for you to imagine such a thing!!) I feel in some ways that I should justify my recent attitude adjustment about that state- not so much for you but more so I can be sure to understand it. I have been on a journey...I have my whole life claimed as part of my identity citizenship with the North East. I was proud of that part of the country. When I went to college I had no idea the extent of the culture shock I was about to experience. I never chose to embrace the South- I was thrown in to it and I was resistant to it. All through my college years I was resentful that I had, unwillingly, moved to a different country where I didn't understand the culture, the language or the women! I dreamed about the time when I could return to where I was comfortable. I ignored anything good about the place I found myself, in order to be loyal to my history. I dreamed about the wonderful things I would eventually get back to; Fall, soup,trees, fireplaces, beautiful eastern accents and names of places I was familiar with like New York, Brandywine, Manassas, Montrose. Meanwhile I met Clint and he started to show me the good things about Texas and I admitted they were "good" but they weren't wonderful or comfortable. THEN came time for us to move here- where my heart had been all these years only I found out that it wasn't. I missed 100 degree heat and pecan trees, Mexican food and huge churches, diesel trucks and the rattlesnake round-up. It seems that while I was in Texas I had given up my citizenship to this part of the world and I hadn't even known it- and I felt like I belonged nowhere except Texas. I find myself now, just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, headed back home to things familiar with a renewed sense of wonderment that it was in my backyard all the time. The only consolation is that without the journey- I never would have known.