Here I Go...

Well, after a near 40 hours on the greyhound system, culminating in the last 5 hours, during which we were trapped on a bus that smelled like straight up urine. Everywhere. We got in at 3:10am.

But we’re HERE!!!

It feels so good to be back in the South East! The air smells so good and it seems like I had forgotten how much I love trees! While on the bus, it grew dark before we had left the desert, so when dawn came the new environment (in Arkansas) was this great surprise! Instead of rocky mountains, short brush, sand and open sky, we were surrounded by changing leaves, damp trees, and farms. My heart jumped in my chest and I felt like I was home. I loved the New Mexican landscape and I wondered if it would be hard to leave it behind and go back to strips of sky just visible through canopies of trees (or city buildings, as the case may be), but as soon as the sun rose in Arkansas, I knew it was the right decision. New Mexico was never really mine (well, I suppose as a white person, none of this land is “mine”) and I think I always knew that. The East Coast is home to me.

Anyway, our wonderful wonderful friends picked us up at the greyhound station and I got to sleep a few sweet hours. Then it was my birthday! And it was probably the best birthday I’ve had in a long long time. Amy took me out to Indian food for lunch and then we picked up Parker from daycare and took her to the playground. I expected her to remember me, sure, but it’s been a few months since she’s seen me and several months since we’ve spent a lot of time together. Well, when we walked into her daycare, she ran to her mom, saw me and stopped dead. This HUGE smile spread over her little face and she walked over to me with her arms wide open. She gave me this huge hug, resting her head on my shoulder, and pulling her face back every couple of minutes to look me in the eye and smile at me more. I was dying, it was so sweet.

I have about a trillion pictures and videos of Parker being amazing and I’m going to use all the self-control I have to not post every single one of them. I recognize that most people don’t need 10,000 photos of someone else’s kid.

There was partying at the playground, tea-drinking at AmyAndParker’s house and finally drinks all around at my favorite pub in all of Atlanta The Marlay House with good good friends. What more could a girl ask for?

Today, we had brunch with the lovely Sarah and a stroll through Little Five Points, where I treated myself to a new women’s herbal from the feminist bookstore in town.

It just feels so good to be home! I’m so looking forward to SOAW this year and seeing my grandmother again. I’m so excited about settling down in Asheville, seeing our good friends and living in the same city as them! I’m excited about my classes and find myself just plowing through the books I’ve already bought (and drooling over Anne Frye’s books which I cannot wait to buy!!!! But why why why are they so expensive???). I’m loving everything I’m knitting (I finished my cabled cowl, started on my shawl and am anticipating long johns as my next project) and feeling both incredibly antsy and totally faithful all at the same time.

Hallelujah.