Guess I'm not the only one...

I read a good number of blogs daily. I've been reading Ex-pat blogs for over a year as my idea for leaving here and going to teach in Korea was forming. There are probably about 6 or 7 blogs I check daily and then there are a few I check in with weekly. One of them linked to a new blog of a person who is about to take off to live in Spain. She's on leave this week doing some last minute traveling and had a guest blogger yesterday who honestly listed out some of the steps I've been taking the last couple of months and am still working on to properly close this chapter of my life. http://almostfearless.com/2008/06/25/good-bye-in-the-citygood-bye-in-the-city/
I've been working on my list of places I've ever wanted to see in Atlanta. This week is The Center for Puppetry Arts. I've always loved the Muppets and there are several exhibits of them there. I'm also planning a trip over to see the MLK jr Historical Area and Sweet Auburn District. I've gotten just about everything checked off of that list.
I'm now working on my goodbyes. I'm working on saying goodbye to places and people. I've been collecting emails and making sure all the contact information I have for people is up to date. I'm probably sending out a new blog link to everyone in the next few days.

My paperwork has all been mailed out. As I've been telling people I'm sitting in purgatory now. I've done what I can and I'm just waiting a departure date and a final contract. I should have it in my hands in the next week or so.

monday packing blues

I've been taking an hour or so everyday to pack and sort through my apartment. What needs to be kept, stored, packed, sold, given away, or trashed. Today I finally hit the bookshelf I'd been dreading. It was going to take more than an hour and would probably induce tears, laughter and several moments of WTF was I thinking. It had all of my scrapbooks, yearbooks, journals etc. on it. Somethings were easy. NMH yearbooks keep pile, my portfolio from getting my teaching credential (sort through and keep the pictures). Notes and drawings from former students go in the keep pile. I ran across the notebook I'd been given by an ex-boyfriend.... that was almost trashed on sight...but I thought look through it one more time. So I open it and find the introduction to his dictionary... and start to laugh remembering how he had his own language... that made sense to only him. I also got a smile remembering how he looked in his dress blues when he came to pick me up for that last Tri-Sigma formal. I got lucky with the nice guys a few times in college. Then I started to flip through and at the back I found all the last wills of the house from when we closed. I hadn't looked at them in years. I thought I was done with all of them. I had a nasty taste in my mouth from things that happened that had lasted a long, long time. Is the hurt at things that happened still there, yeah. Has the bitter taste of betrayal gone away? Mostly now, it's just the wonderings of where are they now.
I know where a few are... I think I'm one of the few that has wandered far away and so I haven't and I don't bump into them at all anymore. I know that my life has taken many twists and turns... from business to education, from Sorority Girl to Leather Dyke to teacher.
A few tears came to my eyes as I thought about the times I spent in Marietta. It's been 10 years now and I'm finally at a point where forgiveness doesn't feel like it matters anymore. It's more of acceptance that would matter now.
So instead of throwing that notebook away it went in the keep box. Right between my yearbooks and the scrapbook of my first years living in Atlanta. Maybe by the time I get back from Korea I'll be at a point where I'll actually think about going back for a homecoming. See a few old faces, be able to reminisce about the fun that was had, until then, I'm going to tape the box shut, label it memories and stack it with the others.

I

The Fun of Paperwork

Today is a paperwork day for me. I'm going to go visit the Georgia State Superior court Clerks office. I have to get some of my documents apostilled or otherwise known as a really fancy notarization. I'm hoping it's as easy as my criminal background check was, and getting that notarized.
I'm also sorting through the stack of documents I've been collecting to make sure I have all of them before I send them off to Canada and my recruiter. I have copies of transcripts, health checks, criminal backgrounds, copies of my passport pages, forms verifying that I've got the teaching experience I say I have. Let's just say that the red tape is quite lengthy but it will be worth it when I get on a plane in August and take off on this adventure.
Things are getting more and more concrete with the end of the school year, turning in notice on my apartment and starting to sort and pack and sell things. There isn't really any turning back now. I'm excited but scared. This is a huge step but I know I can't let a chance like this pass me by.
Hopefully by this time next week I will have all of my documents and I will be able to send them off and get back a firm date for departure. This uncertainly is not sitting well but I know it will all work out in the end.