Home, sweet home ?

Day 199

Current Location: Morelia, Michoacan (Mexico)

Total Countries visited: 9

Total Miles Driven: 24,301

That's it folks.  The umbilical cord is cut.  As of February 8th, in addition to being homeless, I am now unemployed.  Perfect combination of uncertainty and freedom, I am reborn.

I am now in Morelia, which is a lovely little town about 200 miles west of Mexico City.  I have only been back in the country for 20 hours, having spent the previous 8 days in Chicago to take care of my resignation from PwC, finalize my tax return and catch up with friends.  

A week in Chicago, sounds exciting right ?  I really loved seeing many of my friends during the week, whether it was at dinner, movie theater or behind a beer bottle or three.  That was the best part of my trip.  But overall, my Chicago vacation can only be categorized as bittersweet.  Chicago has been my home from July 1998 until August 2011 - just over 13 years.  And now that I return for a week after a 6-month absence, it doesn't quite feel like home anymore.  First, having been spoiled by the clement weather of the South, I can't handle the Chicago weather anymore.  It makes me mad.  No matter how warm it was in February by Chicago standards, to me it felt either cold, windy, blustery, or all of those at once.  I slept 10 hours a night (still waking up tired), and stayed in at home doing nothing productive entirely too much, where I should have been out and about enjoying the highlights of my former hometown.  And the most surprising tell of them all (even to me) - this overwhelming feeling of ecstasy which swallowed me as soon as I reunited with Large Marge and started driving again last night, as if that was what I was always meant to be.

I suppose I shouldn't make too much of this.  I am pretty sure that had I visited in the Summer, I would have loved Chicago and enjoyed my stay there a lot more.  And perhaps in my subconscious mind, Chicago now signifies work, a world of responsibilities whereas Large Marge means exactly the opposite, freedom.  Either way, things have definitely changed.  I don't see Chicago as my home anymore.  My home is somewhere in the world, waiting to be discovered.

I guess I don't have much of an update for this blog edition - just a bunch of mixed feelings spilling out in the open.  This trip is coming to an end soon (some time in March, most likely) and I have to start my slow descent back into reality.  I'm not upset at all that this trip is soon ending - quite the opposite, I embrace it.  However there is so much uncertainty about what is next that I can't quite put my brain around it yet.  I think (hope) that will come over the next few weeks and months.

In the meantime, I will continue driving in a general northerly direction, and expect to be back in the US in the next 2 weeks.  But I promise, the fun is not over yet !  The crystal ball says that there will be more sun, palm trees and fruity drinks in my very near future.  Stay tuned !

DMR