Tuesday, July 22, 2003
I hope you are all still in the habit of checking this blog. I know I have been absent for awhile. As my friend Janet Coonrod would say, my life has been a "whiiiirlwind". Things have been so busy and weird that it would be hard to recount them all. But I will, at least, try to bring everyone up to speed.

I left Houston, Texas at butt-crack early in the morning this past Saturday with a giant hangover and no regrets. Well, I sort of regretted drinking four margueritas and three beers, but not even that, really. I can't tell you the relief of leaving that place.

I got to North Carolina and Owen and Charles picked me up and took me to lunch and let me stay the night at their friends cabin. It was very "real life" in comparison to the life I have been living. We played video games and ate pudding. It was blissful.

But then I had to return to Teach for America land, which was even more frustrating after twenty-four hours of normalcy. They began instantly making demands of my time and surrounding me with people. I have had to be nice for so long now, that I am not sure I can do it much longer.

So, the housing anxiety began in earnest. As did the anxiety about me not having a car in a place where it is impossible to get around without one. Terri and I were planning on getting a house in a county that was in between the counties where we both worked and everyone began telling us what a bad idea it was for us to commute. Terri found out she had to begin work on Wednesday...yes, as in this Wednesday. The heart attacks begin.

Long, awful, stressful, tearful story short- Terri and I decide not to get a place together in the county we were planning on. This leaves us both, about ten hours before having to go look for housing, without a plan or a roomate. Not to mention the psychological scars we created by deciding to live apart when we had been drawing pictures of our house together just that afternoon. Ugh.

Fast forward to the next day- deleting the part about the crying and the going to get beers and the anger- and you have me, depressed and not knowing what to do. In an act of pure luck, my friend Domenica from Institute tells me that she wants to have a roomate in Rocky Mount (where I am working) after all. We decide to get an apartment together. Then the guy we are staying with tells me that he is selling his car and I can buy it in payments.

So, now, I have an apartment (a little cheesy and in a development, but I have gotten decidedly less choosy), a new roomate, and a green 1995 Ford Contour. I am still a little freaked out to be here, but these important practical concerns make me much less so.

North Carolina is really beautiful. I like it in that aspect. Rocky Mount, where I live and work, from what I have seen of it, is possibly ass. I have to see more, but it pretty much sucks. But I can always go to Raleigh. Unfortunately, I am now living about an hour and a half from Owen and the cities of North Carolina, but we will see how that goes.

Whew. I will try to write more often. This was harrowing... ¶ 4:11 PM