October: Currently

Experimenting with writing a bit more off the cuff. With typing directly into this little box and seeing what comes out.

Feeling change in the air. I have said and typed and used it as an excuse too much, but things have been crazy lately. We looked for a new apartment, packed up and moved, the pace picked up at work as the Tunisian elections approached, and I started putting more thought into the future and where I am headed. I felt like I never had a moment to pause and process everything, and looked up one day and thought, whoa, my life feels totally different all of a sudden – even if it doesn't look different from the outside. It's a fall feeling, for sure; seasons changing, some things going to sleep and new things emerging. I remember feeling similarly last fall when I had (also) just moved and was (also) preparing for a big international trip.

Preparing to leave for Tunisia for five weeks. Super excited for the chance to play expat for a good period of time, to get to dive in and learn more about the country I work on, and to brush off my French and Arabic. Definitely intimidated about the workload ahead of me, though. And a little sorry that I'll be missing some fall fun at home – the wine-tasting and apple-picking and mountain-hiking and all the other wonderful things that come with fall. And since we just moved, I was looking forward to settling in and displaying pumpkins and sitting on the new terrace. None of those things really happened. But that's okay – everything has a season, and on balance, this season I would much rather be taking part in this exciting time in Tunisia than crossing off my fall bucket list.

Wrapping up my "extracurriculars." A couple weeks before leaving for Tunisia, I said my goodbyes to the Bhutanese refugee family I had been volunteering with for the past six months. And I froze my Bar Method membership a week before my flight. I had mixed feelings about both – there was a lot more I wanted to accomplish in my volunteer gig, and Bar Method is so much a part of my morning routine – but I needed to say no to a few things to make some space in my life. Again, feeling the shift and the change of seasons.

Cooking Blue Apron and trying to eat as many CSA greens as possible before leaving the country. Enjoying watching the vegetables change at the farmers market even though the leaves don't seem to have gotten the memo yet.

Soaking it all up and enjoying the feeling of being busy, productive, creative.

(Drafted last week in the midst of my pre-Tunisia preparations.
Posting now before this is all old news.)