On the road again...

When I woke up this morning it was like a dream come true, with two hungry cats pinching me to confirm it wasn't a dream at all but Saturday morning in our new home. Of course, like anything else in my life, there was no time to actually take any of this in, stop and smell the carpet shampoo, and perhaps enjoy a lazy first Saturday morning in the new house brought to you by café, croissants and conversation with the still-relatively-new Mrs. T. Oh no - after a quick shower it was off to the airport for yet another full day of travel. On the way, I thought I heard a distant, almost maniacal voice asking: "Leaving so soon?"

I always knew that one of the benefits of moving to B'ham would be the ability to lead a less-crazed and slower-paced lifestyle. I was reminded of this benefit after the short and painless 20-minute car ride to the airport, door-to-door, with no wait to collect my boarding pass, and -- brace yourself -- no line at security. And not just no line - I was the only person there. I even had my pick of which security line to go through. Oh wait - it doesn't matter because there's no one here. So you mean to tell me that I can get to the airport without swearing because the E train didn't come, not having to worry whether or not the AirTrain will be working today, not even have to go to another STATE to fly away (take that EWR!), not have to wait in line for 45 minutes to practically half-undress and have some mysterious machine take naked pictures of me while I hold my hands up as if I'm being arrested, only to get to the gate and realize that your flight is delayed for two hours because they ran out of planes and need to fly one over from one of the other NYC airports (this actually happened once on my very first time on tour with the Saint Thomas Choir), then board the plane and wait on the Tarmac for up to three hours, only to arrive at your final destination after the reason you were going there in the first place has already come and gone. Heck - my flight even left BHM at exactly the scheduled departure time! Man, I could get used to this...

But then descending into the NYC area produced something unexpected: it hit me like a ton of bricks that I am leaving this great city, my over six years at Saint Thomas, and all of the wonderful friendships I've formed - some of the closest in my life - all behind for the next new and exciting chapter in the life of yours truly. It's a lot of emotion that as I write this on the M60 back to Manhattan I am trying very hard to get a handle on.

I had always imagined that my last Sunday at Saint Thomas -- tomorrow -- would be a difficult one. No surprise there. But life goes on, and when I do finally say farewell, it's all for incredibly good things.

So here I am, already back in NYC with the worst case of figurative whiplash ever, off to do that thing that I do for one last time.