And so it begins...

I'm sitting in my hotel room in Philadelphia, kicking back after an early morning workout in the fitness center.  My early morning workouts at the Downtown Oakland YMCA have kept me sane during this crazy transition time and I wanted to hold on to the routine for as long as I can.  Soon that routine will be replaced by my busy Peace Corps training schedule, which I am looking forward to mostly with excitement.  I still can't believe this is really happening and that somehow I made it to the San Francisco airport with my life packed into four rather heavy bags.  And now I'm in Philly waiting to officially register as a Peace Corps trainee.  It's been a long road getting here, having started my Peace Corps application in April 2011, and though I'm grateful that I had plenty of time to get ready and process this big change in my life, the reality of it continues to surprise me.  Leaving my neighborhood of 12 years, which I loved, my job of nearly 15 years and the city I called home for 20 years was much more emotional than I had anticipated.  I had a good run in Oakland and saying goodbye to so many wonderful people, places and restaurants (!) made me wonder why the heck I was giving all of that up. But running underneath it all was the solid conviction that this is what I'm meant to be doing.  Not once have I felt an ounce of regret.  And that's why I chose the name of my blog.  It's the title of a David Gray song and though the lyrics of the song don't hold any particular meaning for me, the title does.  At 44 years of age I'm wrapping up the first half of my life (hopefully it's the first half) and am moving on to a whole new chapter.  Actually, it feels like a whole new book entirely.  Letting go of the life I had in the Bay Area has been bittersweet and to that I "wave goodbye."  Now I move on to fulfilling a dream I've had since I was in high school and "say hello" to my new Peace Corps life and whatever that brings with it.  I'm excited and anxious to see what that's going to be.

As I take the first steps on this Peace Corps journey I am filled with gratitude for all of the people who helped get me here and helped send me off:  my sister, mom and family who threw me a going-away party in Wisconsin, Kate and Peter who provided me with the space to store my belongings, Dan, Kathy and Dash for their generosity and tolerance of my piles of crap and providing me a place to rest my head the last two weeks of my life in the Bay Area, all of the people who bought me lunch, dinner, coffee, pastries, too many of you to list or for my exhausted brain to remember.  For all of this and more, I am grateful.  I hope to carry this feeling of gratitude with me during the next 27 months.  I know I'll be faced with many challenges and will probably find much to complain about but have made a promise to myself to practice gratitude.  Here's to keeping promises!!

Today we register as official Peace Corps trainees and have our staging/orientation event from 2-7pm.  We'll finally all be assembled in real life after having "met", at least most of us, on Facebook.  I've met a few of my fellow trainees, there are 28 of us total, and it's been exciting to meet the real 3D living breathing human behind the online profile.  I can't wait to get to know these people who are sharing this adventure with me.

I don't know how active I'll be on this blog but I will do my best to keep it updated.  I know my mom will appreciate that!  :o)  It's now time to wrap up the million little projects I meant to finish while I still have steady internet and electricity.  More from me later...