Leaving...on a jet plane!

I have been waiting for this for a long. Freaking. Time.

So now that I've done it, it seemed OK. I mean, of course I cried and I was sad, but that's not a bad thing. It's a love thing. You can cry and miss people without it being horrible. Saying goodbye to my family and everyone at church was like that. I'm most sad about the people I didn't get to see, (Mike, Adam, HannaH...) but I feel like I got a nice chance to say farewell to everyone else.

Today, I flew into NYC. I'm basically a pro at this flying thing. Whenever we flew into LGA I was thinking, "Why is this so familiar?" Then I remembered it was my fourth time to NYC this year, which was a tad mind-boggling.

Also, I'm re-naming this blog and creating a new blog! The other one will be for my US-2-ocity, and this one will be more personal ramblings. (Not that anyone will read either...but it's nice to pretend, right?)

My NOLA blog is: amandameetsnola.blogspot.com . It currently has the very poetic blog title: "Blahblahblah." My brain is fried and I haven't come up with a title yet, OK? Patience is a virtue.

And now you're back! From outer space!

OK, so I didn't go to outer space. (But I did go to Utah. Close enough.)

I'm now going through the pretty significant realization that I'm moving in 14 days. And it's far enough that I can't really pack yet, because the stuff I'm going to pack is stuff I'm going to need until then, but I don't want to pack while Dani's here, but I don't have much choice.

Conundrum.

Also it's very hard to try and figure out who I'm going to see before I leave. Two weeks looks a lot shorter after vacation.

I talked to John on the phone last night and I realized how desperately I'm going to miss him. And Connie sends me all these bumper stickers on Facebook about stargazing. It's been so long since I've seen her, and I miss her so much! (Plus I know it's going to be too hazy in NOLA to do much stargazing. That and the highest point in Louisiana is Driskill Mountain: elevation 535 feet.)

I'm really not complaining. I'm excited about going to NOLA, THRILLED about the work at Hagar's House, and really looking forward to meeting people down there.

It's just hard to get there.

At some point in the future there will be a rambling vacation post for the 2 people interested!

It's official!!!

I will be moving to New Orleans in October!!! I'll be working at Hagar's House, a center for single women in crisis.

I'll be living in the church nearby, with several other people who work there (mostly young adults, methinks.) I know some of them will be Americorps volunteers, which means that not only will I be living in !freakingNewOrleans! I'll be living with people from all over the country and with different faith backgrounds.

Heck. Freaking. Yes.

Right now, the schedule that I know so far: Our training, which will be in upstate NY, will start September 23rd (ish.) We'll be commissioned and fly to our placement sites on October 13th (ish.)

DID I MENTION I'M EXCITED?!?!?!?!?!?