It has begun

As I ran in the gym this morning to the tunes of Alicia Keys belting out, "New York, New York," I started crying. Silly me. I will miss this city. It is the place where I came into my own, where I met the Diplomat, where I bought my first car (and my second, MUCH cooler car), my first apartment, had Son, got my first job, two university degrees (with not much to show for them except loans) and where I grew up as an adult. It is a place where I have tons of friends, who have defined my life in the past 10 years. I will miss all of this. Very, very much.
It is also the place where I have managed to accumulate the usual (phone bills from the last 6 years... An ice cream maker ... An odd and decidedly ugly collection of candles) and at times, unusual (like, a cricket bat??) clutter even though I periodically throw stuff out. I'll tell you two things I DON'T have for no good reason: corn holders (always wanted them!) and an electric can opener (NEVER wanted it). So, I have started to slowly disperse, sell, donate and throw out stuff. You will be amazed how easy it is to sell old, old finance and econ books on amazon.com. I encourage you, no, I DARE you to sell as much of your old textbooks as possible!
It is a sad and yet rather gratifying process, this purge of the house.
I am also having dinners out in the city with my close friends, sort of saying Good-bye to each and every one personally. Last night was especially hard--I went out with one of my closest friends and we both struggled not to cry (we DID have a martini and 2 glasses of wine each, so THAT might have been part of it, ahem). Next weekend the Diplomat and I have our big Good-Bye party in an East Village bar--boy, that will be a cry fest!

Son is blessedly oblivious to all this. As long as he has all of his car and trucks and buses in row, life is beautiful. Then again, Son is a traveler: at the age of 21 months, he has been to:
Florida--at 2 mos
California - at 3 mos
Bulgaria - at 5 mos
India - at 6 mos
Bulgaria - at 11 mos
Bermuda - at 14 mos
Florida - at 16 mos
California - at 17 mos
Bulgaria - at 19 mos
Good thing he travels for free.

In other news, we are waiting, breathlessly, for Diplomat's salary letter--the State Dept still hasn't really told us how much he will be making. One thing I have noticed during this entire process--the government is not exactly a paragon of fast and efficient procedure. Wait, you already knew that? Ha, interesting...