Can someone invent the time machine for me--please?

It's the end of my Manhattan stay and I can't believe it. I spent the last eight months anticipating my eventful summer in the city and BAM! Just like that it's passed. Life really does pass by faster as you grow older.

Mom flies in tonight to help me pack up and to hopefully help decelerate/prolong my last forty-eight hours here. (I think our best bet is to just jam-pack ourselves with activities and dessert!) I've missed her SO much. Not to mention, I've always thought this experience would be so much more special if I could spend/share (at least part of it) with the people that mean most to me.

With that said, I couldn't feel any more love and gratitude for the friendships that I made here. I didn't anticipate meeting such great people. (More than that, I would have never guessed that I'd be willing to even give up the golden coast in order to not leave them!) I'm a lucky girl, to say the least. Honestly, it sort of feels like graduation all over again....and we all know how nostalgic and hard that was for me. But I'm learning that that's what life is all about. Chapters and sections. Converging beginnings and endings.

I suppose the most important part in coping with the next transition to my new chapter of life is to remember all that I learned and gained in this. I learned a tremend-stinking-ous ton. About my myself, about people, about community, about education, about business, and about culture. Plus, with the help of the many museums I visited, I now know more about Swarovski crystals, Couture gowns, the American woman, our Founding Fathers, Picasso & Van Gogh, the Japanese culture, ancient Egyptian/Mesopotamian culture, the evolution of weapons and arms, and the Korean Wars, than I ever thought possible. And no, the Museum of (substitute the verb meaning the act of intimate behavior here) was not included in my travels. But you do have to appreciate New York for it--it truly does have a museum or store for everything.

Anyways...here's to saying "bye"....because I refuse to believe in the absoluteness of "GOOD" bye. I'll be back people!


P.S. There's a piece of the Yellow Cardigan in there somewhere.