Afternoon delights and sweet showers of sorrow

There are a thousand things I need to do but I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening (Thursday) working on a new Web site for Xenite.Org. It's a feature article titled Seattle Afternoon: How not to find your way home in Seattle.... I wrote it for my (mostly ex-) girlfriend, who appreciated all the pictures I sent to her on my cell phone, but she really didn't get to see Seattle through my eyes.

I wanted to leave her with a memory that we could both share. And, to be honest, we've got lots of memories. We spent $20 on an Image Shots session. The pictures came out pretty well, except for one where I have a goofy expression on my face because I was talking to the photographer (in fact, we were joking about it in the car and I kept emulating the voice of Disney's Goofy). That will, of course, be her favorite picture in the bunch, but I made sure we got a different pose for the larger pictures.

The past few weeks could have been a really difficult time for me, but I've been unbelievably happy. And when I walked around Seattle Monday afternoon, I did my best to show her what my new home would look like. I don't know where in Seattle I'll live, but my home is really wherever I am, wherever I go. She was able to share my first experience in Seattle thanks to the magic of cell phone technology.

One could say we'll be bound together by that technology, but she wants us to let each other go and move on. It's for the best.

So, Seattle Afternoon is my parting gift. It's a memory that will always be there for her, as long as Xenite.Org is there.

This whole week has been hectic and insane. The last thing I should have been doing was creating a new Web site on Xenite.Org, but it was important.

And I also went down to the dance studio to help Gloria Jones with two more Salsa clases before saying good-bye. We've been teacher and student for so long, I'm not sure if I said a proper good-bye. I left Houston once before, but it was under entirely different circumstances. And I came back for a variety of reasons.

While I hope to come back for occasional visits, I don't expect to return to Houston or Texas to live any time in the near future. I've made many friends here, had many great times and adventures, learned many things. How do you say good-bye to a city that has shaped a corner of your life? I just don't think I can do that.

I'll have to come back eventually.

There were other things I wanted to say, but it's getting late and I should get some sleep. I still have to pack books and things and move them out of my apartment. And I have two evenings of saying "good-bye" to friends and loved ones.

This will probably be my last blog post for at least 10 days, maybe 2 weeks. I have seen other people say, "I won't be blogging for a while now" and they disappear for months on end. I'm not ready to let the blog go without comment that long. I still have things to say. In fact, I will have many things to say about my new home.

I'm looking forward to what lies ahead. But I'll always remember what I leave behind. J.R.R. Tolkien said it best, when he wrote these words for Gandalf at the end of The Lord of the Rings: "Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil."

Rain can be a beautiful thing, when beheld by loving eyes. I will miss you, Houston.