Slow Maelstrom

That silence you've heard for the past week and a half was me resting, sleeping, and surfing on the interwebz. You might have heard some snoring, too, from the sleeping. My mind has kind of been like that empty, static-filled screen you see in the middle of the night on some TV channels.

So I'm here, in the Seattle area, and it's kind of weird. I still feel like I'm visiting, even though I oversaw the movers when they put all my stuff in a storage unit. Part of that is because I'm staying in someone's guest room, I'm sure, and some of it is because those times when I have been here over the last dozen years I have been visiting. I need to change my mental framework.

I'm very glad I'm here. I'm also kind of weirded out by it. Many thoughts and feelings have been swirling around inside of me: happiness, exhaustion, stress, anxiety, surrealism, expectations, trying to not have expectations, positivity, fear, and today I'm having some fibromyalgia pain, which I think is partly a delayed reaction from all the stress I was experiencing just getting ready to move. Everything has been swirling slowly, probably due to the exhaustion, for which I am grateful. I couldn't handle vertigo too right now!

The weather has been quite a bit cooler than I am used to. Colder, really — in the 50s during the day. We had a lot of rain and gray days my first week, but we've been having some simply glorious days recently, with brilliant blue skies, puffy white clouds, spring greens, flowers and flowering trees in all colors. These are the days that almost make you forget about the rain and the gray.

I remember when I first moved to Houston: one of the habits I had to wean myself off from was always taking or wearing a jacket or at least an overshirt with me when I left the apartment. Well, I changed that habit and got very comfortable going outside in just a tank, shorts, and sandals. Now I'm in the position of having to reverse the process! I'm underestimating how much I need to wear to be warm enough, usually by a thin layer (think an undershirt or camisole). And I don't always bring a rain jacket when it looks like rain (which is often). I need more weather-appropriate shoes and probably another jacket or vest or two. My BFF says I can borrow his sweaters until I can buy more of my own, which is nice. I really need an income so I can buy these weather-appropriate clothing items. I'm just hoping that I can make enough of my Houston wardrobe work here in Seattle enough of the time so I don't have to buy an entirely new wardrobe, which is more or less what I did in Houston.


I still haven't gone through my pictures, but should get to that this week. I have made my lists of what I need to accomplish and when, both personally and professionally. I'm not behind schedule yet. :)  And I set up the first of my telephone therapy appointments. It won't be the same, but it will help me as I try to ease my way through this storm of transition.

Some cool things that have happened or are happening soon: I went to breakfast with my close girlfriends and we had an awesome time eating and talking, just like usual. It fills me with bliss to spend time with them. We are going up to the Tulip Festival this coming Sunday. My fake-nephew turned 18 today so I'm taking him out to lunch this coming Saturday (and I'm excited that I'll be able to do things like this with him and his sister). I went for a hilly walk around the neighborhood with my BFF on a beautiful afternoon. I met a friend of the friend who owns this house and she was just a kick. Other social events are being planned and my BFF is going to sit down with me and help me figure out which professional Meetup groups would be good to join, some of which he is a member of.

So my life is moving along. I'm still napping (I'm still very fatigued), but I'm doing things when I'm up and I want to do things. I'm not doing everything I want to do yet, but I'm also not beating myself up for not doing everything yet. It's not a race. It is an adventure.