"this is not hicktown."

I'm here. I'm saving myself twenty phone calls (for now) and writing it out because I am still reeling from a day of travel and air sickness, weeks of drinking, playing and packing, and months of not having an address that was actually mine. So now I'm home for the first time in months and setting myself to the impossible task of trying to absorb it all right away.

Some first impressions:

1. Flying over the city upon descent, I didn't believe that this was actually where I was going to live. The city is vast and tall and industrial. You would not believe the port on this city! It even has an aroma. I feel right at home.

2. It's hot and humid and diverse here.

3. From my windows (two!) I can see: a trolley line, a house that looks straight out of Rocky or It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia or, let's go crazy here, Sesame Street (my house probably looks like that too), and people out enjoying the evening on stoop and sidewalk. One person just defended Philadelphia against Pittsburgh, saying, "This is not hicktown." No, it's not. And I'm not in Kansas anymore.

4. The thought of twenty-seven g*d d*mn boxes showing up is terrifying. A yokel from the moving company called me while I was in San Diego to tell me it would be difficult to get a truck onto my street annoyed me, but now, surveying the street and my narrow little stairs, twenty-seven g*d d*mn boxes is a math equation that I can't solve right now. And don't get me started on getting the Old Dutch Treat in and out of here. I'm going to deal with everything tomorrow. In the mean time, I'm going to loose twenty pounds instantly going up and down our stairs.

5. On the cab ride home, I couldn't help but feel that I had no idea what I was signing up for when that big white envelope showed up last spring. I've had a sense of that as I have done the unthinkable- turning down a good offer from another program, selling my car- but up against downtown the gravity of my decision stood out in sharp relief. It wasn't a bad thing, but it was overwhelming. I don't doubt what I chose for a second, but man, I'm feeling what it meant to take the risk that I did. And I'm loving it because not in a million years could I have expected any of this.