Expired!

Well, tomorrow is the day! I fly out, with the occasional layover, to my ancestral manse - refugim, if you will, with a mighty oak tree...ok, I'm getting carried away there. Extra points to you if you recognize the reference (save up enough points and I'll send you a pony).

I've turned in my keys to my apartment and workplace - I no longer have the power and authority to drift through certain libraries like I own 'em. Sigh.

I'm going to miss being here. Walking around campus, living in my apartment, visiting friends, movie nights, talking books and film and such with roomies, deciding I absolutely need to make peach cobbler at midnight and being able to do so, ice cream for breakfast, late night conversations with my roommate....

What I won't miss: bills (and paying them - though my happy little school loans will replace that, so I won't feel overburdened by money), stupid sliding doors on closets, no proper AC, very cold temperatures, demoniacally ugly carpet, allergies to local trees, dry weather, nonexistent dating life (ha - some things probably won't change).

Things I'm looking forward to: Sleep sleep sleep sleep, eating real food, sleep, warmth, pools, real air conditioning, my cat, local libraries, and probably sleep. And posting on my blog regularly (that's the dang thing's original function anyway - to communicate with those from whom I am parted).

Things I'm not looking forward to: part time job (at least, I'm not looking forward to aspects of that), internship shopping, student loan payments, driving, eventually getting a car and all that that implies, allergies to local EVERYTHING, all the little bits that can make living at home unpleasant for someone who's lived semi-independently for a while.

But, as my brother tends to put it: Bring it on.

Update on May 1 2007: Two flights later and I am here! The only thing worse than travel is travel while one is ill (sorry about the "one" usage, but English really needs an impersonal and ungendered term like they have in French for these hypothetical comments - it's the best I can do). My dear allergies have made the last few days decidedly unpleasant, but such is life. So long as A) my throat clears up and B) I stay uncontagious I will be fine. But I have my doubts - so I'm trawling for a medic (that accepts my insurance). Ah, post-educational life!

But all is not doom-n-gloom. I have plenty of ice water (other beverages have little appeal right now) and my mom's famous oatmeal chocolate chip dried cherry cookies (impossible to duplicate, however hard I try). I slept in this morning, though not by my former state's standards. And I will start the fight to reclaim my bedroom as soon as my back-up arrives (read: somewhere around 15 boxes of stuff I shipped).

I will miss school and its freedoms, but here stand a new set of challenges to keep me busy (and likely complaining to you, my friends). I think I still feel as I posted earlier, though with a bit more caution (imagine me saying this behind a rather large tree): bring it on!