what you feel is what you are and what you are is beautiful

I really should be packing, but I think I'm going to go to bed instead. I accomplished some stuff today, but not as much as I should have - I got most of the stuff out of my storage unit, which was key, but now my living room is overwhelmed with boxes, and that makes it hard to pack more stuff because I'm running out of floor space. Ugh. I also packed most of my clothes, but half of my bedding, all of my cookware, and a variety of other random things remain to be packed before Thursday. I can make it, I'm just completely unenthused about the task at hand.

Despite that, I had a lovely day - I spend the afternoon packing, and then went up to the evil city to have dinner with Vidya and Julie. I had demanded that we have crepes, but when we got to the restaurant, there was a hand-written sign in the door saying that they were having an 'electricity' problem and would be back in an hour. I think it's more likely that the cook felt like leaving for awhile - the last time Vidya and I tried to have crepes, the cashier took our order, and we waited...and waited...until it was clear that the cook had just disappeared, so we left. But the fact that they had just shut down entirely tonight was completely unexpected. Thus ends my relationship with the crepe place!

Instead, we went to some Thai restaurant and enjoyed a lovely meal despite our rather ADD-inflicted server. We followed this up with Turkish coffee at a restaurant near Vidya's apartment - turns out I like Turkish coffee, except for the bitter dregs, which Vidya drank for me. We then parted ways with Julie (sniff sniff), went back to Vidya's apartment, and watched 'Project Runway' for a couple of hours, before I left at 12:30am.

It's starting to sink in that I'm leaving California, and I'm feeling that same lurch of homesickness for this place that I felt for Iowa when I started working out here - even though I had been in California four years at that point, there had always been the likely probability that I would move back to the Midwest, and so it was only when I started my job that I began to feel homesick because that chapter of my life had closed. Now, I'm going back to Iowa and it's unclear whether I'll be back, or in what capacity I will come back - and by the time I do come back, several of my friends will likely be gone. I don't think I'm really melancholy about this (yet) - it's more just the realization that things are changing, even though I'm excited for these changes and am extremely eager to work on my book and all of the other goals I have for the remaining 5/6's of my leave of absence.

Okay, enough of this, since I don't want to fall into a brooding mood - there will be plenty of time to brood when I drive ~1800 miles east this weekend. Goodnight!