Jessica the Wanderer

I really do feel like a nomad.  I just moved into my fourth place in three months… 

This spring, however, I will be moving a fifth time.  Now that I have talked to my parents about it, I am comfortable sharing the following news with the world: I really am moving to Jacksonville, Florida in May!  The details aren’t completely worked out yet, and there are still several decisions to be made, but I’m definitely going. 

I’m not sure that I have ever been more excited about anything in my entire life.

Two of my best friends are moving down there to work and establish residency for grad school, and I’m hopping on that train and going with them.  The Jacksonville area has the second largest school district in the state, so maybe I will be able to get a teaching job?  If not, it is such a big city that I’m sure I will be able to find a job doing something.  I just know that being out of Florence, Alabama will be the absolute best thing that can happen to me.

No one will look at me with pity.  No one will have to speak oh-so-carefully around me, in fear of bringing up what happened.  No one will know about everything that went down and how badly I was hurt and humiliated.   (I’m not saying that I don’t appreciate all the kind words that have come my way and all the concern people have shown.  I appreciate the support everyone has given me more than I can express.  It’s just hard to be constantly reminded of what happened.) 

No one there (aside from Brooke and Alyssa, of course) will know anything about me. 

Well, they’ll figure out that I’m awesome within a matter of seconds.  Duh.  But aside from that, I will be able to start from scratch. 

I think that I deserve a fresh start.

I think that I deserve to experience all the things that I never got to experience.

I think that I deserve to be happy.  And as much as I love this place, and as much as I love so many of the people that are in my life here, that isn’t going to happen in Florence, Alabama.

Those of you who really know me, you know I don’t say I’m going to do something and then not do it.  If I say I’m going to make it happen, I’m definitely going to act on it. 

So, yes.  This is really happening.

Feel free to start planning my surprise going away party.  I know that I’m not leaving for months, but the more time you spend planning, the more spectacular it will be!

On an unrelated note…Ellie Mae is now has a roommate of the feline variety.  The cat weighs almost 3 times as much as she does, and they have the funniest relationship ever.  They don’t fight.  I actually think that both of them have a strong desire to be friends, but don’t really know how to go about it.  Jack (the cat) can’t really figure out who or what Ellie Mae is. I’m pretty sure that he thinks she is some kind of toy. They follow one another around the house, in slow motion, for hours at a time.  I am going to do my best to capture it on video.

On another unrelated note, I had a crazy couch adventure on Saturday.  One of the biggest things that I had insisted on keeping in the whole divorce debacle was our living room couch.  It is quite possibly the kind of couch Jesus sits on in heaven.  It’s that amazing.  Well, it was no problem loading it into the U-Haul.  (And by no problem I really mean that I stood there and watched as two really big guys struggled to get it situated.) 

Yeah.  No way in hell was that couch going to fit in the door at Joey’s.  We turned it every direction you can imagine.  Nothing.

Finally, I gave up, hopped back in the U-Haul, and went and bought a new couch. 

That one wouldn’t fit in the door, either.

I’m totally kidding.

Amazing how much measuring actually helps.