Recharged Batteries

Fresh back from a trip up north. I have made firm living arrangements, secured work, and made preliminary arrangements for transferring Sadie to Rutherford High School. I have a lot of legwork to do this month, but remember, this time last year I was doing the same type of things under a lot more pressure.

I remember the similar tasks I was coordinating about a year ago, even less really. I had a $10,000 deposit on a beautiful house in New Port Richey that I had to negotiate my way out of. I had a funeral to arrange. I had two girls and two dogs to lead through times of unprecedented grief that needed a navigator through life.

I almost feel apologetic bringing it up for the umpteenth-million time, but I need to remind myself sometimes. Some people in my life feel the need to remind me of how hard it's going to be to coordinate the move in one month. I know this very well, but that's not the aspect I chose to focus on. If I can make every 6 out of 7 days highly productive ones, than I believe that I can pull this off.

This week gave me a good opportunity to sit back after the work was done and just enjoy being up north. I mostly walked around Brooklyn, just being quiet and observing life. I got to ride on the subway quite a bit, which I found enjoyable. I barely drove my rental car, which turned out to be an expense I could've done without, but not driving for a handful of days was actually very relaxing and I felt kind of good about not consuming gasoline. I swear to God, my legs and butt are definitely in better shape from all the walking!

I bought a CD on the street from a guy standing in front of the Virgin Mega-Store, peddling CD's featuring positive hip-hop. He seemed like a nice guy and I knew I had a 5 in wallet. Turns out Je' Willie's CD is really, really good with no F-words. Evidently he has a Myspace page but no Facebook. I told him about some of the great artists out there who spread by word of mouth, just some homemade music like his, who have managed to do a couple of things and gather a following. I mentioned Noel Gourdin and David Sides and promised to write to him on Myspace.

So here I am, back in Spring Hill, but now there is no question that I won't be here for much longer. There's so much more I could have enjoyed about living in Florida if things had turned out differently. My heart has hardened to all of that beauty and it's now more of an endurance test, the last leg of a marathon. I have surrendered to the hard work, sweat, tears, and effort of the beginning and evidently even the middle. The wind is to my back and the momentum is high. We'll be sailing back any day now...