September 12, 2007: Wagons Ho!
We've packed up almost everything and piled the boxes and smaller items in the dining room for easy movement out of the house.
All that remains is for the movers to load the truck on Friday morning and take it all down to Jacksonville.
How do I feel about moving from Ohio? Strangely blase, I guess: my usual vindictive glee at escaping what I perceive to be a hellhole doesn't seem to be kicking in this time. Stupid maturity.
Truth be told, Ohio didn't excite much emotion in me, positive or negative. It was neutral in almost every way, and maybe that helped me get half of the novel done, not to mention lots of other tasks. Maybe there's something to be said for a place that is almost completely invisible in all practical measures, where the logistics of living are so simple that you don't even notice them.
Of course, that's what I'm hoping for back in Jacksonville, again--though this time with more of my friends handy.
I've posted in the past many scathing entries about my disdain for Jacksonville, and I'm sure it'll still be hot and conservative and provincial. I've now seen enough of other places, though, to realize that people are similarly annoying everywhere, and Jacksonville at least has the virtue of friends and familiarity, perhaps enough to enable me to continue my focus on my work more than on my neighboring society.
I think, though, that most of my discomfort with Jacksonville came from a sense of being trapped there. I'm in a position now in which I can live anywhere according to my whim, and there's a big difference in your attitude when you actively and deliberately choose to live there for compelling personal reasons of your own.
I'm addicted to new beginnings, and this is yet another. Pressing my mental reset button seems a common necessity for me, and I'm looking forward to rebooting again in Jacksonville.
