gone back

I ran frantically around my house this morning, packing and throwing the necessary items in my car. 

I wandered my old office this afternoon, feeling nostalgic. 

I stopped for my chai at my daily coffee place and sat in the window, savoring the moment.

Then I drove toward the highway, and as I took the on-ramp toward Gone West, I started laughing and beaming. 

I didn't even realize that I was excited to move back. These last few weeks, living in Universe City and trying to figure out a million little details, with no time to head up to Gone West even to look for a place to live (I haven't been up here since I took this job), I could think only of the list of things to do. I couldn't actually imagine being here. 

But suddenly, this afternoon, the whole thing became real. It happened again and again on the drive: I would break out in grins and sometimes in whoops. I was even more delighted when I took the exit to the street where my favorite tea place is. I could barely sit still in my seat.

I've been in Gone West for four hours now, and I have settled in at K.s' house and found a place to live, in exactly the area I want, with two girls who seem awesome, for less than I paid in Universe City. When I lived near there before, this was always the street I chose to walk down, because it is the prettiest. It also has the best name. (I have a horror of living on numbered streets. I don't like the ### ### format of living on street that has a number rather than a name.) This is a quintessential Gone West street, and I love it, and I can't stop smiling and dancing from one foot to another.