This is Bound to be Personal in a Tacky, Not-So-Interesting Way.

Feel free to ignore this one. It may not stay up for long.

What a strange few weeks. Not that it's over or anything. We still don't know what we're doing this weekend--Athens, Georgia, or a farm outside Roanoke, Virginia? Blacksburg? Franklin, NC perhaps?

It seems like almost everyone I know is in transition and rather unavailable. I myself am moving into my new house and somewhat away from our little womb of love. Only five blocks away, sure, but it will certainly mean a change, even if I mostly sleep in the same bed where I've slept for the past four months or so. The new house is shaping up to become a radical public school teachers' affinity house.

When we went up to Asheville to try to retrieve my things the first time, we couldn't get the truck because we had both somehow forgotten (duh) to renew our expired licenses. The guys at Penske in Weaverville were really nice about letting us reschedule, which I know they didn't have to do. I felt sure that if we had been in Asheville or Greensboro, we would have gotten a self-satisfied, not-sorry-at-all "Sorry. That's Penske policy."

Foiled master plans aside, we had an interesting weekend.

My list of mini-trip highlights:

- Despite multiple potentially volatile run-ins, the only word creepy ex said to me was "No," and this was solicited by a question: "May I come in?" Furthermore, I have received no psychotic text messages since then. This is a first.
- David being perfectly supportive and making everything better.
- Being magically given a place to stay by Ms. Magical Erin, and then cuddling with her magical cat.
- When asked why he had responded to my question about a Haruki Murakami novel instead of telling me where to turn, Aaron saying, "You asked me two questions at once. I answered the more important one." Also, Aaron saying, "It's my life, isn't it?" when I tried to convince him to stay somewhere he didn't want to stay. I was flushed with affection for him right then, especially after the "Do you think I treat every woman like my girlfriend?" thing. What a rad guy.
- Hanging out at Gaining Ground Farm, where there was a booty dance party in the house (complete with several children under three) and an old-time and gypsy jazz pickin' session by the fire. Nice people.
- Seeing Ken and Ziggy at Broadway's.

Lowlights:
 
- Realizing how utterly terrified I still get when confronted with the possibility of meeting creepy ex face-to-face. I still feel spine prickles of imminent danger when he is near, or even when he might be near.
- Creepy ex not letting me into a 70's African music DJ party I really wanted to attend (hey, but at least...see above), since apparently he is somehow the bouncer? Boo. But I tried.
- Having horrible dreams about creepy ex doing terrible things to me.
- Not sleeping at all and freezing my arse off when we crawled into our tent at the aforementioned farm, and then having to spend the rest of Sunday sleeping instead of getting things done, and then being ill-prepared for class today.
- Not seeing some people, and spending too little time with others.

Just weird:

- Watching the conflict in people's faces as they try to decide whether to talk to me, seeing the embarrassment in their eyes as they fumble to make a choice: Recognize this person's humanity, with which I am very familiar, or be cowed by the inevitable wrath and "betrayal" rhetoric of someone who never gives up a grudge, and who is watching very, very closely?

People can be disappointing. I'm not sure what the difference is between a friend and an acquaintance anymore. I have been unsure for a while now who my friends are. I am inclined to think, from evidence I can gather so far, that Greensboro may be a better place to make them.

Off to sleeping and voting and renewing licenses and teaching. Hum drum dee-dum.