Trains, trucks and automobiles.  And not in that order.

To catch you up, the auto train was fun and not so much. Better than driving, for sure, but no luxury picnic.  I was lucky, had no one in the seat next me, that would have definitely cramped my style.  There was, however, a lot of "humanity" near me and that was always interesting.  there have been many times during my stay in Miami when I wondered where had all the old, retired Jews gone?  You know the ones, in the white shoes, with the NY accents. I think they've been gentrified out of Miami Beach to points farther north.  But don't you worry, they are alive and well on the auto train!  From the expert holding court to all the novices in the extremely long line to check in (yes, I admit I was listening when I could) to the hilarious guys with whom I had the pleasure of eating dinner.

Sol and Sal. Both transplanted NJ-ites who've been in Ft.Lauderdale area for going on 30 years. They were hysterical. I can't do them justice. I should have written it down that night. The fourth at the table was Noreen, a 20 something Haitian born woman who lived in Trenton most of her life. She had just moved to Orlando about 4 weeks earlier, but decided it wasn't for her.

The conversation was all over with Sol trying to make political commentary on the different treatment of Haitians and Cubans and I was holding my breath. Noreen had no clue. You're from Trenton, he says, there's a prison there. Again, I'm thinking, what's the reaction going to be... laughter. We're making chit chat...eating away and Sol is like a commercial. "This is good fish. Its light, its airy, the breading is just right. This fish is very good." All three of them had taken the auto train before. I was the only "newbie" in the group. Then, I don't remember what started it, but Sol started telling us jokes. After each joke he would explain it. Until finally he got to one joke, where the punch line was about a schnauzer and I didn't get it. Oh no, he said, he couldn't explain that one because he didnt know us. C'mon Sol, that's not fair. Finally I dragged enough clues out of him that it was a reference to female parts. A schnauzer? that's a new one on me. That's when I decided it was time to retire back to my seat.

It certainly wasn't horrible and it certainly wasn't great. I contorted in many different positions that night before the light of morning.

Once we arrived in VA the cars came off pretty quickly, at least mine did.  I had to turn off my brain and just drive so to make it to my friend's house for a much needed shower. I only overshot by a few miles and exits.  It has been almost 4 years, after all!

Rejuvenated I went and had lunch and spent the afternoon with a friend.  Strolling through capitol hill was a pleasure as always.  It was a treat to visit my old neighborhood and catch up on all the new buildings, renovations, news and gossip.

Back to Arlington for dinner, visiting and I was out like light.

The next day, I began the next leg of the journey.  The trek north.   But first a mango meeting.  I brought two boxes full of fresh mangos with me and my car was starting to smell like a ripening fruit stand.  I stopped in College Park for lunch with my #1 niece and to hand off a few mangos.  I feel like Trader Mango.  I have shared mangos with every one I meet.  I have peeled and cut tons of them for the freezer and I'll be making mango cocktails the second we hit the beach on Saturday.  Its very possible that I could actually turn mango yellow soon. Not that I'm complaining in any way.   Those mangos are sweet and delicious and something from Miami so I'm enjoying every one of them!

Today the storage unit, tomorrow the world.  My world at least.  It is rumored that the truck with all my worldly belongings will arrive tomorrow.  Actual time still unknown.  Its been a weird slightly untethered feeling not to have any of that stuff. 

Yesterday I had nothing.  No keys to any place, no where to call home.  Today, I'm just a little closer.  I have a house key, a storage unit key, moderate start to organization in a room of my own. Thank you Virginia Woolf, now I finally understand.

The adventure continues... or just begins, more accurately.  I'm starting to get excited about apartment hunting, job starting and basically getting going with this new chapter.  C'mon world, bring it.  I think I'm ready!

I channeled Mary Tyler Moore today.
Wasn't it Mary Tyler Moore who ended her series by leaving the newsroom alone, one last look around and then shutting out the light?

So today, after working late my on last day at work -- so what else is new, right? -- I realized that I was leaving for the last time.  So many memories in that little clinic.  So many adventures.  It was so cavernous when we first moved in.  We even tried to get other folks to rent out some of the rooms, but other than our favorite in-house part time psychologists, we had no luck.  Now, here we are, 2 1/2 years later and we are crawling all over each other.  We are packed in like sardines.  Patients, students, paper, paper, paper, research, more students, more paper.  Even looking to expand space to the office next door.

Interior design on a budget meant a zen look from Ikea.  The shopping trip wasn't so bad.  The assembly part, now that was  heinous.  I was always waiting for a patient to land on the floor from sitting on one of the chairs that I put together.  A good poker was often the only thing between me and wanting to come clean on the string and bubble gum that held us together in the beginning.

A crazy handy man who installed almost all of our faucets backwards. Good times, good times. 

I distinctly remember the first time I called in a prescription. I was terrified.  I was in overachiever mode and left so much information on the machine I thought it was impossible that I could have missed everything.  It turned out the next day that I had left everything except the patient's name!

Fast forward and I've learned more science than I think I retained in all of high school.  I can throw around natural killer cells, cytokines, seropositivity and my very first -- postural orthostatic tachychardia syndrome.  I still have only a nominal understanding of all of these things but wow, how far I've come.  I could never have guessed at the path of my career and all in all, that's a good thing.

Many of the patients I have met on the journey will stay in my heart forever.  They are among the strongest people I have ever had the privilege to know.  They face each day head on, no matter what it brings, with a fierce will to survive and overcome the most daunting of situations.  I wish I could bottle or photograph their resilience and present it back to them.  I know that most of them wouldn't even recognize themselves in this description. 

I count down my last days here, it is the patients that I know I will miss most of all.  I felt like I made a real difference for some of the patients,   And that is the greatest feeling in the world!  So many have expressed their appreciation and gratitude recently and that has been unbelievably rewarding.  But there is an inherent pressure in health care as well. Even at the "front desk."  Our patients are truly ill and often needed more than we had or could possibly provide.  That inability to fill the void sometimes weighed heavily on a tenderhearted, heart-on-my-sleeve kid like me.  But for the patients, especially the patients from the original clinic and the ones I got to know best... I would do it all again in a heartbeat!

So if I've done nothing else in the last few years, I hope I have helped to spread the word about this debilitating illness.  What I've learned could fill four tractor trailers!  whether its about starting a new business (ugh!) or ordering medical supplies (thank god for the internet) or sitting holding a patient's hand and listening to her story (my most favorite part!!!), I know that it was an adventure I'll never forget.

So Chronic Fatigue Clinic, we had a helluva ride together. Grow, flourish, and make me proud.  The patients need you to succeed for their very survival and I need you to succeed as the legacy of my big adventure in Miami.

That's one last look around and lights out.

Its time for a new adventure.

Wow.  Its been a year since I posted something to my diary of my adventure in Miami. Its been a wild year indeed. Partly, its that I got more comfortable here and partly that I got a bit subsumed by work and started to have less and less time for my adventures.

Now, it is the eve of my return to the north and I am just starting to absorb what that means.  I am packed and in fact my belongings have already left.  Not sure if they're in Miami or where they are, but they are gone from me.  I know I'll see them again... but there's that little tickle in the back of my head that wonders. Am I really left with the odd eccentric items that were somehow left behind to travel with me in the car.  Is the sum total of my belongings really made up of a step ladder, box full of bathroom things, two towels, a router, some random books, an iron and a box marked seriously important papers.  It could be worse, it could be better.

I am heading north on Monday and as I travel the miles, I am hoping to shed some of the stress and weight of my last year here.  I am truly planning for my train ride -- I'm taking the auto train  -- as my transition ride.  I am leaving this interesting, exotic and always surprising city and traveling, mile by mile back to where I belong.  Back to a place where there are more people like me than here. Back to a place where I hopefully won't have that constant low grade alien feeling.  And most importantly, back to the world of the theatre.  I am really excited about that.  After what I've done here, I can do anything.  Really, anything.

And so it begins.  My new adventure.  I'll have to figure out how to change the name of the blog.  But that's a mission for another day.  Today, I'm one step closer to the big change.  I'm one step closer to it all feeling real.  I'm one step closer to leaving my new friends and that is truly the hardest part of this bittersweet decision.  No matter, I'm one step closer.

So now I invite you to come visit Philadelphia.  Its a cool place. I'm looking forward to rediscovering it myself. Come play with me and we'll find all sorts of good stuff.