Good morning! I got up extremely early today, because:
1) AnnaLisa left extremely early for her last all-day bar exam practice test. I wanted to at least grunt at her before she left (but in fact, I was fully conscious and managed something more elegant than a grunt!).
2) I haven’t started packing yet.
3) I have to allow time for at least two flat tires.
4) Pentagon City beckons me!
So what am I doing? Checking e-mail, of couse!
My feelings about this imminent departure are rather mixed. There are few places in this world that can rival the energy and pace of Washington, D.C. To say that I feel melancholy about having ever left here (even though I recognize it was clearly the best, and right, decision to do so) is an exercise in understatement. However, in 1999, I was *not* prepared to be living in DC on my own. Had I been here during 9/11 or the sniper shootings, I’m quite sure I would be treating an ulcer today.
And so it is — as with so many things, the DC area presents me with a double-edged sword: I love it here, and it’s terribly bad for me. I’d be willing to bet my blood pressure’s higher here, and then there’s the whole I’m-allergic-to-DC issue that has sent my allergies this week into overdrive. Yet even with all those negatives, when I was standing in the Holocaust Museum’s *gift shop*, for crying out loud, I was utterly overwhelmed with emotion. Live music in the plaza at the Reagan whatever building downtown. Visiting NPR (which was fabulous, by the way). Today, I’m going to drive by the Washington Post on my way to Virginia. Seeing Tucker Carlson through the window sliver in his GW office. I mean, how can any other place compare to those sorts of experiences? They can’t, they won’t, and I never know how to reconcile that.
But no worries, my friends. I love my job at TWU, and I’m very happy in Dallas (though, I’m *so* not looking forward to giving up these partly-cloudy-and-85 degree-days!). I’m not packing my bags or scouting out places to live in DC. How could I possibly leave all of the great people I’ve met and gotten to know in greater Dallas? 🙂