Sever ties, forget old lies ...

A great last few weeks in Houston, Texas. Jose came back and we drank and danced the night away ... he also brought me some cool gifts from Spain: another baraja española to play Escoba, a book of Mortadelo & Filemón, and some Baltic liqeur or some kind I haven't really checked out yet. We had a lot of fun living together in those last weeks, even if I was too silly for Jose sometime. I was wrapped up in doing another improv show ... it was great to go back and I felt so inspired to continue working on that. (I've had my doubts.) We had a good show and I felt the other players were really generous with me. I also had a great debriefing with director/coach Mac on my progress over the entire year ... and I felt I was able to be honest about my strengths and weaknesses in a constructive way.

I know. I must be boring the living fuck out of you all. Introspection is for Raskolnikov. Forties and beedonkeedonk are for me.

So ... one, two, skip a few. On last Tuesday I had going away drinks all afternoon and evening at the West Alabama ice house while different folks stopped by to say hello. Got a nice gift from Henny ... a shiny, shiny shirt! So I can gleem.

I won't go to much into the goodbyes or my feelings about them. Suffice to say there's a lot of reflextion to be done about the adulthood screen test that was Houston. It was neat to be with Gente de Teatro in rehearsal a couple more times.

On Thursday I left Houston early in the a.m. and began a fascinating trip wherin I met hurricane victims all along the way, at almost every stop. I also paid the highest gas prices of my life, and this was with my car heavy with stuff. First stop Thursday afternoon was Marvell, AR, where a friend from college -- Lindsay -- is changing young minds along with a national corps of stellar human beings. I have to say, it was relaxing to roll in and sit waiting for her under the shade tree ... the sounds and smells of that area still just get to me. It feels like being at my grandfather's house years ago. The peaceful south. Somehow that is very conforting in the short term and very depressing in the long term (for me). I think Lindsay will like it. I'm still a city-slicker, and so I headed on to Memphis.

Where we spent all of Friday at the church, getting ready for the arrival of hurricane victims. Mom was to move in to the shared space community over there to be able to work from on site. But -- before that -- she and Annabeth and I were able to sit on the balcony over at N. Parkway and just shoot the shit a little both evenings. Saturday I drove out to Knoxville to have lunch with Tim and then on to Washington that evening, where I saw Zack and Jessica and Lu ... and Brian and Josh were in down (at the Buffalo Billiards bar in Dupont) for a surprise visit from Houston. Sunday afternoon I got to Philly and my new place. My apartment in the sky. No ... really, it's incredible, I think I described it in a previous blog post.

From there it's been nuts ... figuring out what happened to all my shipped boxes, trying to find some basic furniture, and diving right into this (seemingly much more challenging than Rice) PhD program. I'm having an effing blast though. Loving charging all over Center City on my bike and having so much in walking distance.

That's all I have time to update for now ... life is still nuts for the present. What a feelin .... seeins believen' ...