I did laundry today.
That may seem like an insignificant, everyday thing, hardly worthy of blogging about. But it wasn't just any old laundry--it was MY laundry. In MY washer and dryer. In MY condo. While clothes and towels were tumbling quietly in the other room, Casey and I sprawled out on the futon in my living room and took our first official Dallas nap.
It's been a week now since I settled into the new place. I'm still having trouble believing this is all really happening. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was sitting in database class, talking about cluster analysis? I would swear it was last week that I was going through orientation with Renee, my new roommate, worrying about school and what kind of jobs we would get when we were finished. And it was last month, not two years ago, that I was comfortably lounging in my tiny living room in Virginia, watching TV and dreaming of graduate school.
In the blink of an eye, my whole life has changed.
What's been really funny for me is beginning to meet new people. The first question out of everyone's mouth is, "where are you from?" I haven't figured out how to answer that question just yet. Do I say Chicago, the place I spent a year and a half and barely knew? Should it be DC, the place that truly was home for six years? Or is Ohio the right answer, the place most responsible for who and what I am today?
And now it's time to embrace a new city and state. How long before Dallas is "home"? I still feel like a visitor walking into my house. Part of that is certainly the fact that it isn't even fully furnished yet--which admittedly is going to take me a while. Maybe once I get the couch in and the cable set up, it'll begin to feel more cozy.
Even the dog has had a hard time getting comfortable. She spent most of our first week holed up in my bedroom, sleeping lazily on the bed. Granted, this is also the room that offers her the best vantage point in the house. But still, she just seemed a bit out of sorts. Unsettled.
Fortunately, that's not how I've felt. Feeling fully moved or not, I am definitely at a high point right now. Yesterday, I was out walking Casey, looking around at the shops and restaurants in my neighborhood, vowing to try everything at least once. And suddenly, the thought struck me: I am happy. For the first time in a long time, I am truly, unabashedly happy. I'm not worried about where I'm going or where I'll have to be. I'm not worried about finding a job or getting into school or even who I'm going to go out with on Saturday night. I'm not lonely (though I'm sure there will be days when I do feel that) and I feel entirely content sitting in my house, simply enjoying the fact that I've come so far.
And yes. I'm even loving the smell of laundry. Because it is the smell of accomplishment.
