an american girl

I blame Tom Petty for finally feeling overwhelmingly homesick. In reality I should blame my subconscious, but I live with that constantly and the likelihood that I’ll ever meet Tom Petty is low.

The last three days have been a whirl of frenetic energy. We arrived after almost 15 hours of travel (Luftansa is amazing by the way) and Chris, Sarah, and Kelli greeted us, helped us get our things inside, and then wisely put us on a bus to go get lunch and bed linens. I don’t remember much from our first day here. I’m surprised that I can recall how to get to the grocery store because of how little sleep I had gotten in the last 24 hours. But we stayed up until 9 pm and I fell into a fitful first night’s sleep.

The next day was clearer. I discovered that I had bought too large of bread for our toaster, but had toast nonetheless. Sarah led us downtown so that we could open up a Scottish Bank account (true story- the bank computing system doesn’t do suffixes so adding the III after Jack’s name required a call to a manager). Fortunately we were able to open one right away. I say fortunately because most people have to make appointments and come back or wait for the school to give them a letter acknowledging that they are living here. Our banker was super friendly and has a father-in-law in Louisiana so we talked about Cajun food and the casinos on the Texas border.

With our bank account we could get phones. Because we have no credit score yet, only Jack could get a contract and I’m on a prepaid account for the first three months- but we have contact numbers now. With a bank account and phone numbers we could go and get a cable/internet subscription. We’ll get our TV and cable on Monday and internet a week from then. Sarah says we’ve had the quickest turn-around time ever for that. I’m looking forward to having internet again as that’s my lifeline to connecting with the outside world.

Yesterday (Friday) had fewer errands, more unpacking (we’re all unpacked!), and much more downtime.

Stupid downtime.

Being busy getting life set-up had helped me forget how far away I was. The quiet, stillness reminded me. I bought season 4 of Parks and Rec and have been rewatching the “Treat Yo Self” episode ad nauseum because laughing at it is a distraction. Then I went to bed. I don’t remember much of the dream, but right before the bright sun woke me up at 6:30 this morning, I was dreaming about trying to get to a Skyrocket concert. I remember Megan Mulholland was in the dream because I was asking her who the guy in her new profile picture is (if you’re reading this Megan please facebook message me….). I know it was Skyrocket because Jim Barkley was already inside and I could hear American Girl playing.

For those of you who have never been to a Skyrocket concert, they end every show with Tom Petty’s American Girl. It’s the sign that it’s time to leave. And when I woke up a few moments later, I felt an overwhelming longing for home. I’m not sad that I’m here. I’m not regretful of why we’re here. I know that we’ll be home again in a few months for Christmas and once school starts we’ll settle into a routine and this will feel like home.

But Tom Petty is making me miss Houston. So far I haven’t really cried about saying good-bye. I’ve almost lost it a few time (except when I said good-bye to Billy because then I was bawling, but he’s my kitty baby so that doesn’t count). I almost lost it when Sandra hugged me good-bye, when Mel was asking how she’d watch Bachelor in Paradise without me, when Gillian and I did the leukemia high five, and when we left for the airport and said good-bye to Elizabeth. On the airplane I welled up a little bit when James Taylor started playing because James Taylor always makes me think of my parents. So it seems strange that a song in a dream would have me crying now.

As strange as it sounds, this particular song is also oddly appropriate. It’s saying good-bye to one part of my life that’s ending and sending me out into the world. But the beautiful thing is that they’ll be a next concert. There will always be chapters closing, beginnings and endings, and 70s/80s cover bands.

I’ll try to post pictures sometime next week of our flat (it’s actually rather nice other than incredibly old). This post is being written on my computer and I’ll save it to a hard drive and upload it tonight on Jack’s computer when we go over to Sarah and Chris’s flat to Doctor Who. Once I can login to the internet on campus I’ll be able to post from my laptop again- I’m currently limited to emails on my phone for any real communication with the outside world.