I haven’t posted in a month? A MONTH?! I’m ashamed. You may all give me 30 whacks with a wet noodle. (That is so gross and weird.) In my defense, it’s been a heck of a month. Semester and classwork endings, three Christmas celebrations around the Midwest,  other assorted holiday/break visiting, movieing, etc. and packing and leaving for Chicago for good.

As I type this, I’m sitting in the middle of my empty apartment, using someone else’s wireless network called “EATMYPOOP” (hee) and trying not to fall apart. On a related note, Magellan *actually* pooped on the floor today (shh, don’t tell my subletter. It’s a secret between you and me.) for the first time in 8 years. So evidently she’s handling it about the same as I am. Actually, since The Secret Incident she has been cool as a cucumber. Perhaps I should poop in the floor. Man, I’m tired.

So now I’m going to get in my car and drive away. Two and a half years here have earned me an almost-degree, a fierce and devoted army of friends and about 20 cartons of books.  I was terrified to do this, to pick up and leave my life to come back to school, to do it all alone, to go do some living without a net to catch me. As I face the next giant chapter, I’m feeling terrified again, but somehow more equipped to deal. Maybe it’s the years that passed (I am a dignified thirty-something now, you know) or perhaps it’s just that part of  the deal with living is that life gets less scary as you do it.  Who knows. I do know this: I am not without a net. My net is giant, it is stretched across the whole country. People who love me are holding it in the place I’m going to and the place I’m leaving, on the West coast and the East coast, and even overseas. I am not doing this alone, even if it’s just me doing the actual doing.

Thanks Net-holders. You know who you are. (here’s a hint – it is probably you).