"Why must I wander like a cloud..."

The past few days, as exemplified by this picture (which Bryant took as I was napping yesterday), have been about as different as possible from those that preceded them. My last week in Bowling Green was a mad dash of sorting, filing, packing, hauling, cleaning and leave-taking, under relentlessly drippy skies. By the time I followed my grandparents' fully loaded van with my own packed wagon onto I-75 south Monday night, I was too exhausted even to cry (much).

Now, however, after a ($137!) flight that took me from Dayton to Philadelphia to Las Vegas before dropping me in Los Angeles, where Bryant came to get me, I am in the desert, where I can drool with impunity in my parents' recliner. I have exchanged my beloved apartment (just a shell when I left it, empty and echoey) for my parents' guest bedroom, and rainy Ohio for the desert heat. All the stuff that wouldn't fit within my luggage allotment is in my grandparents' garage, waiting for August.

To date, I still have not heard back from UCSD, and admit it's unlikely that they'll be able to make an offer comparable to Minnesota's, so the stuff (and my car) sit in the Midwest, awaiting my return that direction. Yes: I am going to the land of the Golden Gopher.