Plans

The past few days have been a whirlwind of anxiety and decision-making. I'm still absorbing all the changes that are taking place, both short and long term. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Monday night was sleepless. All the confidence I'd been feeling the previous days totally evaporated, and I woke up sleep-deprived and jittery with nerves. For about 6 hours straight all I could think about was that it was TFA decision day, driving myself utterly insane in the process and maybe not the most pleasant person to be around. Around 5pm (we were told we'd find out after 8) my brain kind of just shut off, from what I imagine was a combination of fatigue and over-thinking. I told myself I wouldn't check my email until I was home after working a bit later than usual, and somehow managed to ignore that pestering red blinking coming from my phone telling me I have unread messages. Of course as soon as I get home I go right upstairs and open up my email. The first is just a general TFA email titled "Your Teach for America Application." The second, sent shortly after, was titled "Welcome to the Atlanta Corps!" At that point I just started smiling and didn't stop for approximately 5 hours, told my mom, and texted Caitlin letting her know that all our theoretical planning was actually (finally) real.

So, Atlanta it is. I'll be an elementary school teacher (curve ball!) and I'm completely thrilled. I officially accepted the offer today, and have to register for the GACE test that I'll be taking January 9th in Georgia. More flights to book! Speaking of flights - the test timing, as well as other pre-Institute work, coincides pretty terribly with my Thailand program. After thinking it over and talking with my parents, I've decided not to go to Thailand after all (sorry, gdub alumni newsletter).  I'm still visiting my family in Germany at some point in the spring, but priorities lie with TFA, so Thailand has to wait. The silver lining is that I'm getting basically all the money back that I've put into the trip so far...which is now dedicated to moving costs. Another silver lining is that I'll be at Alumni Weekend!

And yes, I'm already looking at Craigslist to see what kind of housing options there are (it's so cheap!) despite the fact that I know extremely little about Atlanta so far. And already loving the fact that Caitlin and I designated Wednesdays as Roommate Dinner at Soul Vegetarian night.  Agh. SO EXCITED!!

Jumbled

My brain's been a little chaotic the past few weeks, so I'm not going to fully flesh out these thoughts into their own entries.

- Flying to Nashville on the 23rd for a full week! I'll be joining the Dixon tribe for Thanksgiving and can't wait to meet the full extended family in all its glory. I'll also be there for Caitlin's birthday (which is, coincidentally, my half birthday) and potentially the birth of her nephew. Who said a lot can't happen in a week?

- TFA decision is rendered this Tuesday at 8pm (yeah, they give you a specific time, and yeah, it adds to the stress even more). There's not much I can say to express the general anxiety I have over the situation, so I'll leave it at this: Basket. Of. Nerves.

- I've been in a total cooking and baking frenzy lately. This past week alone I made pumpkin butter, chocolate chip pumpkin cookies, chocolate chip pumpkin bread (twice), pumpkin & black bean soup [yes, I carved apart, roasted, and pureed what felt like the world's largest pumpkin], a mushroom/onion/spinach/cheese/sausage frittata, and chili. My mom went to the produce market this morning and brought me back lots of beets and a bunch of little eggplants, so I'm currently toying with the idea of some grilled eggplant pizza. Ooh, and maybe a potato-eggplant tart. I suppose cooking and following recipes calms me down when I'm stressed and distracts my racing thoughts, and I do love sending off little packages of cookies (want one? Ask. Caitlin did).

Like I suspected, this entry is just about as disjointed as my thoughts have been lately. I guess I'll end with this: always make sure that when you take a huge swig of liquid Nyquil you check the expiration date first. Didn't take this precaution last night and discovered the medicine to be quite, quite past due. The consequence? Some seriously trippy dreams. Lesson learned.

Catch Up

I think my blogging frequency is directly tied to the time I spend at a desk. Case in point: since moving back East, and especially since I started babysitting, my blog entries have been a lot more picture focused and a lot less actual writing or reflection. Now, fair warning - this entry will be generally much more introspective and much less story-centric.

I've spent the past 3 weekends straight out of town, so let's give them a quick recap in bullet point form:

AC
- Sending Tom off to Australia with lots of Roulette, 5 Hour Energy, Wawa, beer pong, and hanging out


Nashville/ATL
- Lots of driving, getting lost in Olympic Park (no, it's not easy to get lost in), GA Aquarium (shark petting, sippy-cup buying), Andre/5Hr, bachelor parties, drag queens, Pink Pony (where Caitlin fell in love), Waffle House, 6 Flags.


DC
- Wine tasting, grape stomping, Trollifying, front-loading the open bar (subsequently: dancing, mistaking Halloween props for candy, possibly Jumbo Slice) approximately 6 hours on the couch Sunday, Amsterdam falafel.

Despite (or maybe because of) being perpetually sleep-deprived over the weekends, saving less money than I thought I would, and indulging in several vices, I'm happier now than I was in San Francisco. When I first moved I told people that I was "taking a break from real life" by coming home, deciding to teach abroad, and leaving corporate America. Two months later I feel like I've actually started living again (oh melodrama, I know). I'm spending time with people I love, taking advantage of last-minute travel chances, and feeling much more like myself.

Two months from now I'll be boarding a plane to Germany and then on to Thailand only a few days later to teach English for 2.5 months and see a completely new corner of the world (anyone want to visit Thailand/SE Asia mid-March? I'm serious, talk to me). Hopefully after that I'll be spending a few much-needed weeks with my dad, stepmother, and little sisters before returning to the States, to either wherever TFA decides to send me (8 days!) or DC, most likely.

The immediate future holds nights like tonight - drinking a beer on the couch, oven on (currently: an enormous pumpkin), watching Cliff Lee destroy the Yankees - and weekends like the aforementioned. The eventual future is alternately defined and unsure, but I'm perfectly content to play the waiting game for a bit, especially when it's filled with things like planning next year's hypothetical apartment (complete with napping room/corner and game night) with Caitlin. Yes, I'd say things are pretty good right now.

Life as of Late, In Pictures

Weekend in Atlantic City. Not pictured: the 17 bottles of 5 Hour Energy we bought.

Reunited and it felt so good.

We followed all directions.

Escaping DC streets for an afternoon of wine tasting...

And grape stomping.

It's all beautiful, basically.