Finally, a decision

Yes, I have been away from my blog for a long long time. I think my last update was posted while on vacation in New Mexico, though I've been back for two weeks now.

Well, my trip was fantastic. Take all the postitive adjectives one could use to describe a trip, combine them into one long, overly descriptive word...and that might begin to characterize my time out there.

It was so good, in fact, that I've decided to move there.

Yes. That's what I said.

I tossed around the idea while I was there, and then on the plane home I made it official. Since my return, I've been investigating job and housing possibilities. I talked to my manager at work the other day, so they now know I'll be leaving soon. While I don't have a definite date set, I'm shooting for the first week of April. Ultimately, I want to teach again, since it's the one occupation I've ever truly loved and which I know I'm great at. However, it's highly unlikely I'll be able to teach anything, even as an adjunct, before next fall. So in the meantime, I am checking out possible transfers within Starbucks and if that doesn't work out, I also had a very promising phone interview today with Borders for a supervisor position.

As I've told people, Santa Fe feels like a city of misfits, and that is probably why I feel just right there. The only person I know in Santa Fe is a former undergraduate professor who retired out there about ten years ago, and I've contacted her so we can meet up sometime after I arrive. But for the most part, I'll be starting from scratch.

It's exciting and nervewracking and while it might seem spur-of-the-moment and a sort of random, I can't think of a valid reason to not do this. I've been sitting on my ass for a year now not making one damned viable decision about my life, so it's time to just do something. Yes, I've tossed around ideas of moving overseas or this plan or that plan, but up until now, none of those plans ever really motivated me to make them happen. This decision, however, clicked into place the second it entered my mind, and I've spent just about every moment outside of work planning and working out the logistics to make this a reality.

Who knows how long I'll be there. A year. Five years. But that's not the point right now.

I'm so excited about this move. I'm excited about the move itself, the drive west with my dog. I'm delighted about my decision to live there, to experience on a long-term basis a place I love, a place so completely different from anywhere else I've ever lived. But I'm also happy to have come to a decision about something, to know what I'm going to do next and to be actively preparing for it.

Next up for the blog, some pics from my trip...later tonight if I have the energy. If not tonight then tomorrow, my first day completely off in about two weeks. Tomorrow is the first day in almost two weeks that I haven't had to go into the store for either a full shift or a meeting of some sort. I'm completely exhausted and love tomorrow because it is all mine.