Saturday Morning at the Palace

It does seem like a palace.  To live in a room three times the size of my room back home.  To have a closet.  A dining room.  Porches galore.

The morning light wakes me early, the best sort of alarm clock.  I wonder what waking here will be like in the winter.  When people hear I’ve just moved to Massachusetts they warn me about the winters.  And then I tell them I’ve moved from the frozen tundra and they laugh.  You’ll do just fine then, they say.  I think I will.

It is quiet here this morning.  Everyone else is working or gone for the weekend.  I can have breakfast on the porch, read my book and take my time through the day.  There are letters to catch up on and, yes, still studying to do.  Maybe I will explore the library.  I am trying to remember to take time to be still.

For my fellow grocery store tourists – current count is five stores (four different chains), two of which I REALLY like and two of which I will NOT return to.  I need to find a phone book and look for smaller stores.  No one seems to know if there is an asian grocery or a store where I can get decent chili peppers.  I am enjoying exploring the new city.

I miss the smallish bears.  Not early in the morning, but other times throughout the day.  It is strange not to hear their random observations of the world.  Not to see their crazy dances.  I hope this decision of mine does not break them.   I am afraid still.

The Palace has a Post Office Box.  The girl with the key likes mail.  Just so you know.

Overheard: Passing by an office

Woman:  I wonder if turtles get depressed.  They just look depressed, y’know?

Out of Quarantine

Newsflash everyone:  I do not have tuberculosis.

An Actual Conversation: Somewhere in Jersey

Girl holding lemonade glass:  I like porcupines better than Abraham Lincoln.

Boy who is not a Sox fan:  Oh, but come on!  Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves!

First Day

The first Monday morning.  I am awake more than early enough, just a little nervous.  The hospital is just a short walk from the apartment so there should be no worries about being late.  I know where the room is, deep in the basement, around three corners, past one corridor of laundry carts taller than I am, through two doors and down one ramp.  I have learned how to cross the street here (quickly).  I have learned (remembered?) a little more how to drive East Coast Style.  An adventure indeed.

I got a bit lost coming home from Jersey last night in the dark.  I forgot how uncomfortable that feeling is.  Winding mountain roads, no sense of which highways connect at which towns.  I was thankful for a calm voice far away, reading directions to me on the magic telephone.  And I was reminded that a better road atlas is a good idea.

This week should be fairly smooth.  Paperwork, orientation type stuff.

I miss the laughter in the resource room.  Will these students laugh?  Will they laugh as much?  Maybe if I am not afraid to laugh first.

Overheard: Somewhere in New York

Pensive man:  Henry Rollins bothers me on a very deep level.

Words of Wisdom – Forward

Three days until the move. I am essentially packed. Well, if you count having everything stacked in the front hallway as packed, then I’m ready to go.

I am leaving so many things behind. In lab the other day I was feeling sad over this when a classmate laughed, “You know what you won’t miss?”

“What is that?”

“The clam chowder. You won’t miss the clam chowder here one bit.”

He is right. I am leaving many things and going toward so many more. Forward. It is a good direction.

Overheard: At the Resale Shop

Customer: I wonder what size pants Peter Tork wears.

Better When Less Medicated (and why can’t we just call it “H” ?)

Instead of spring allergies/laryngitis I have strep.  It is just the way I remember it from elementary school – painful.

This is making it difficult to learn the things I am supposed to be learning in Immunohematology.  (Yes, a eight syllable word for blood-banking.)  Tonight, I’m looking at four different nomenclature systems for the same set of antigens and I feel like I’m trying to tell the future by reading a bowl of alphabet soup. ce can be called f but CE is never F? Too many little and big letters!!

16 days until the big move eastward.  I have packed one box of cookbooks and two boxes of schoolbooks.  Do I really need anything else?

Checks and Balances

Every year, on this night, I spend time being uncomfortable.  Remembering things I would rather put aside.  Is it wrong of me to be comforted because I know that tonight, that this year at least, I am not uncomfortable alone?  I want there to be a year when I don’t even notice.  Maybe soon.