World Record Transitioner

I am getting to be a professional at this transition stuff. I am setting packing and unpacking records left and right. One hour today to unpack all my stuff and settle into my new flat. Took me only three hours to pack it all up in the States.
Maybe this will be the last major transition for a while, how great would that be?

Walked around to explore the new neighborhood today, starting to get used to the idea of being a "Madrileña" now. This city is exciting and diverse and I could find something new to see and do every night if I wanted.
Jet lag is hitting me a little weird this time. I fought the tiredness this afternoon so that I would be able to sleep tonight, and I now find myself completely wide-awake. Ughh, I hope this tea I have been drinking isn't caffeinated. Is white tea caffeinated?

Pretty much just anxious to jump into things, though…
Here's to diving into the thick excitement of unending possibility...cheers? salud?
Sure.

3 AM

t's 3 AM on my last night in La Coruña. I am too high-strung to sleep right now. In a minute I will go finish my laundry and close up my suitcase, and climb into the bed in this tiny, old spanish apartment that has become home.
It is such a weird mix of sadness, and nervousness and excitement and anxiousness and exhaustion. At this stage of the game, a lot more sadness. Makes me want to never get attached, never grow to love anyplace or anybody.
I am trying to find that independant- follow-God-with-abandon Spirit I once felt like I had. It has gotta be in there somewhere, right?
Gotta get some sleep.
I have a long drive tomorrow.

We'll just wait and see how the next two months go. Keep walking, eyes open, but you can close them sometimes.
I think I will go and force those eyes closed.

Dear childhood Jessica,

Do you ever have those startling moments when you realize you are a grown up?
I had one walking past a window downtown yesterday. Just out of the blue, caught my reflection in a travel agency window, and had the realization that A) I am an adult now and B) I am nothing like I ever imagined I would be when I was a child.
Did you ever try and imagine yourself as a grown up?
I always pictured myself as a mom in the 1980's. Chin length mom-haircut, big shoulderpad sweater, driving around a station wagon with two kids. I would talk on the phone to all my other mom friends and we would get together for potlucks and bible studies.
Kind of a weird picture, but I apparently thought time (and fashion) would stand still and I would turn into my mother. (though we never did have a station wagon...I always wanted one) This is when I was 7 or 8.
At age 15-16, I could not imagine life past college. My whole world revolved around that light at the end of the high-school tunnel...go towards the light...go towards the light...
Graduating from college I was not thinking so far down the road, I believe I was more interested in just FINDING the freaking road and getting on it.
Alright, so I found the road and I am on it, though I am not sure where it is going and the road signs are few and far between, I am traveling on the road.

All this is just to say, that somewhere in the middle of all that, I turned into an adult.
And it really sneaks up on you, grown-uphood.
Because nothing in life is predictable, and you just want to have some warning or some idea of what to expect, I find myself very thankful that there are no shoulder-pad sweaters or station wagons available and that I live in a country with no concept of the "potluck dinner",
because I might be tempted to make my childhood dream come true...beware the chin-length-mom-haircut!!

Dear childhood Jessica:
You will not be like you are picturing. Don't worry, though, it turns out a thousand times better!
Sincerely (no, really)
Adult Jessica

P.S. Stop letting your mother perm your hair, I think all those chemicals will fry your brain just a little and as an adult you will find yourself constantly boarding the wrong bus and wasting hours riding around the city in the wrong direction...