I Am The Calm Center of the Storm

Tallulah doesn't know we're in another state. But she does know there is a lot more sunshine than there was a week ago. The blue sky is a patient reminder of why we're here. To slow down, to look, and to expand. Which we are doing in more ways than one.

Felicity loves her new cottage. As does Lu. I, on the other hand, am looking for stability in the form of honest work and a place where I can settle down to exorcise these ghosts haunting me. I have never been here before, but I grew up here. Each road I travel has new meanings added to the old memories. Here is where I kissed Sasha behind the fence, opposite where we shop for groceries. Here is where my best friend and I used our wits to escape from the mean punks, that is now a containment area for relocated Yankees. Here is where I played soccer in a neighborhood which has changed it's demographic from upwardly mobile to downwardly retracted.

North Carolina has the nation's fourth highest unemployment rate: 10.7%. So, I've decided to go back to school. New skills for a new environment. If they'll have me I will study Industrial Design at NCSU in Raleigh. They have a two year masters in design program that seems perfect. By the time I graduate, my daughter will be four. She will begin to write, to read, and to craft intelligent seating solutions for my ergonomics class. This prompts me to pontificate at length about her future interests, hopes, and dreams. But I won't write any of those down here...she will.

And to my dear dear friends keeping in touch personally: thank you for your support. We are making the best of the worst, and turning the lemons into meringue. I hate meringue. But others seem to really enjoy it.