A long story short, my mom thought she was dying (it turned out to be a bad allergic reaction, thank goodness), and I got scared that I was going to lose my mom so soon after losing my dad that I picked myself up and moved. Fortunately, at the time I had the money to make the move, a 900 mile trip with three cats. :driving: I ended up losing a good career position, though, due to the move.
I had never seen or witnessed an hurricane before in my life. Last year was my first hurricane season, and I'm told that it was an unusual one. Hurricanes and the weather situation here weren't even thoughts for me when I moved -- except of course, I knew enough to get rid of my winter boots and most of my extremely heavy winter clothing.
The way people act here is different. I feel like I don't quite understand the rules yet, either, especially with the small town attitudes. There's an almost feeling of some sort of secrecy in the air, an huge grapevine, and it's something that I'm not privy too because of being an outsider. I think people here don't understand me too well either. I'm divorced and childless, just a single. A lot of people here think that's odd -- especially, for a woman. And if one more person looks at my ring finger and mumbles to themselves -- and I've seen them do it -- "Not married," I'm going to flip. I'm just trying to create a new life for myself -- a stranger in a strange land. Mostly, I've been keeping myself busy with work and taking care of the homefront, you know.
And everyone who's gotten back to me from Florida are right. Adjusting has been rough. Maybe, I just need to give it some more time. These past five years have been a terrible time of transitions.
Who moved my cheese???
