It's been a strange summer. I can't believe it's almost the end of August, but at the same time, I can't believe it took so long to get here! The past three months have been some of the longest and most aggravating of my life. My job has been increasingly irritating and stressful, especially since I gave them my notice SIX WEEKS ago. As soon as everyone found out I was leaving, the shit hit the fan. I thought I was doing them a favor by giving them lots of advance warning, but really I just made life way more difficult for myself. See, it turns out that everyone knew that I was carrying the weight of the whole department, and when they realized that I was about to shrug it all off and flee the country, they all started to panic. My boss hates me because she thinks I've been spreading rumors about her, when in reality everyone knew she was a total fraud all along, because she can't hide her utter lack of skills. It's been rough, to say the least. Mike's been working away at his various jobs and his book all summer, so it hasn't been too easy for him either. Going home at the end of a long day with a muttering, angry, tense fiancee hasn't helped matters much. I've been teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown/fit of uncontrolable rage for at least a month now. He's had to walk on eggshells around me and try to placate me the only way he can - with food! DC is a completely toxic environment for us. We have no friends here really, and no one to blow off steam to except each other. All we do is work and stuff our greedy gobs. If we stayed here we'd definitely be rich, but we'd be dead by 40, I just know it.
Luckily for us, the end is very close at hand. This is my last week at work. Then I have a few days to pack up and ship what little stuff we're bringing to London, and on or about the 2nd of September, I'm heading up to MA to spend a few weeks with my family and friends. I can't wait. I am really looking forward to the long drive up the East Coast. I'm going to rent a car, plug in my iPod, and just cruise for 8-10 hours. I need some solid, unadulterated alone time, just to decompress and literally put hundreds of miles between me and the poison that sits like thick smog over this town. Mike's going to stay here for a few weeks to get some uninterrupted alone time for himself so that he can finish his book without having me following him around or pestering him to entertain me. I'll miss him terribly of course, but I think we'll appreciate each other SO much more after we've had a little space.
The 19th is the big day, our departure from the US. We're leaving Boston in the evening and arriving in London the next morning. After a short layover, we're getting on a plane that lands quickly in Athens before heading on to Crete! Last week, we decided to fit in a quick trip to the Greek Islands before settling in London. See, our original version of this plan was to leave the US in April and travel Europe all summer before settling in London in the fall. Situations kept changing and opportunities kept knocking, so we pushed our departure date up and up, until finally we had no time for a vacation or any kind of travel, we'd just be going straight into school and work as soon as we landed. Now more than EVER we need a freakin' vacation!! So we decided to leave a week earlier than planned, and by the end of the following day, Mike had us booked on flights, ferries and in several hotels. We're landing in Crete, heading out to Santorini for three days, then back to Crete for two days before heading back to London. We're shipping all our stuff straight to London and just bringing beachy summer clothes in backpacks on the flight. I am so very excited, this is exactly what we needed to get us through these last few weeks. I don't know why it seems harder to handle the stress now, when the end is so close, but it's just been unbearable lately. I'm even thinking about picking up smoking again, at least I was a little calmer when I was a smoker. I know, poor me, I have to get through a measley 5 days of work, then faff about for a couple of weeks before going on an exotic vacation and then moving to London. It doesn't sound rough, and it's really not I guess. I've just reached my breaking point with DC and the nature of my daily life, and I'm finding it so hard to hang on. I don't feel like myself anymore - I feel empty and drained and so very dull. I am yearning to find myself again, to become reacquainted with the lively, interesting, spirited girl I think I was once upon a time. 5 more days.....
On another note, I have made the leap and switched to Mac! I am writing to you know from my new iBook G4 laptop, while I'm sitting in Tryst on a lovely Sunday morning, taking advantage of their free wireless internet. I was really nervous about making the switch to a Mac, being that I am so conversent in Windows. I do miss right-clicking, but other than that, I haven't found any other ways in which Windows is superior to Mac. I find the interface much more user friendly, and you really get so much more for your money. I got the high-end version of the iBook, with a huge hard drive and fast processor, and it cost me at least $700 less than a comparable Windows notebook would have. Oh and it's also very cute and it matches my iPod.......