Well folks, that’s a wrap on Florida.  After a stress filled and tumultuous month of May, I am heading home.  I have come to a standstill on the chest knot after having a diagnostic mammogram, an ultrasound, some x-rays and a CT Scan. The only thing I know for certain is that it is the joints of ribs 5 through 7 and there is absolutely no mass, tumor or cyst to be seen.  While I have not ruled out a form of bone cancer, I would not have the possibility of moving forward until the end of July so I feel okay picking the situation back up when I get on insurance in Tennessee.
 
The nail in the coffin of the state of Florida is the fact that I cannot afford my own place and I cannot find a room to rent either.  I crashed at one friend’s place for a couple of months and left once I thought I had found a nice place to stay through a friend of mine.  Unfortunately, it became very clear that this person had never had roommates before and tried to control my every move and so I had to leave because while I can understand a few ground rules, this person has no say on whether or not I call my sponsor every day, go to church every Sunday or go out to parties with them when they invite me.  So I find myself almost homeless yet again and now I have a different friend letting me crash for a few weeks.  Half of my stuff is on her back porch, part is in my trunk and part is in my room in bags or suitcases.  It is this whole continuing to be homeless scenario that has me ready to go back to Tennessee where I have a nice house I can stay in while I get back on my feet.
 
I have decided to treat my home city just like I would treat any city I have moved to – like I haven’t been there before.  I am going to find groups and Meetups to join, rediscover the churches and just see what happens.  Having my brother around will also be of great benefit since he does a lot of car and truck restoration.  He has already said he can get the water out of my door and fix my seal – something new I am dealing with until I leave rainy Florida. 
 
A lot of my friends are asking if I will be staying this time and all I can say is that I plan staying a couple of years, but you never know what’s around the corner – I could be gone in a couple months or stay a lifetime… I guess I will find out when I head north on 75 in a few weeks. What I do know is the person returning is not the person who left.  After living on the West coast and the East coast – I have changed a lot.  I am not the same person; I have new perspectives on so many things.  But one thing my adventures have taught me is paradise is nice, but it can also be lonely if the people you love are too far away to enjoy it with you.  So here’s to going back home and making the old new again and enjoying time with family.  Hope each of you has a great June too!

I don’t know who turned my timetable on its side, but whoever it was – Please sit it right side up!  Chaotic is the only word that comes to mind to describe my life right now.  Dead End is another good description for my life right now as that is all I seem to be encountering at the moment. 
 
I had to leave my rental situation of the last two years at the end of March.  I have never had any issues finding a room to rent, however, I have not been able to find a place this time around and so I am typing this blog from my friend’s dining room table.  I am staying with her and her fiancé for a few weeks which doesn’t sound too bad, but the house is tiny and they are getting married and about to have a dozen people staying here and so as I said timing is just horrible right now.  I also lost my roommate and my neighbor who have been a great help to me when it comes to my car of never-ending problems.  I helped her pack up some last minute things and drove her up to her new town and while doing so that wonderful Low Coolant Light started flashing.  The entire coolant system in my car is brand new including the thermostat and sensor so I really have to ask, What now, Chevy?  Maybe your new cars are award winning, but your old cars are far from it.  Problem is that I no longer have anyone to help me with my car.  It goes down, so do I. 

And of course, I had to say goodbye to the world’s greatest dog, Lilly.  As soon as I would open my door in the morning I would hear the thump, thump of her tail wagging on the floor.  At first sight, she would jump up and run to greet me and flop over onto her back for a morning belly rub.  She also helped me with my exercise by taking me on very brisk walks through the neighborhood.  She is a sweet girl and I will miss her and my roommate very much as they were both very good to me.
 

While I was going through all of this cleaning stuff out and packing stuff up and trying to find a place to live, my work asked me start working overtime.  Again, timing is just not working in my favor these days.  My work is asking the impossible of me, completely disrespecting me on a daily basis and they pay me quite close to nothing for all of my trouble.  I guess I should have never taken this job as it certainly has put me in a tight corner, but I didn’t know the financial issues surrounding this university until after I started work.  I have been trying to find a new job, but that too has been one dead end after another.  What do you do when all the doors are closed and your typically vocal gut is completely silent?  Well, I have been grappling with the idea of going back home to Memphis for a while, but I have been reluctant to quit my job, which would mean loosing my income and my health insurance.  I can only have coverage through a group plan or Obama Care since I have that ugly “C” word in my medical records.  Memphis is also a place where a lot of bad things happened.  While I do have family there, it is just a hard place to go back to due to all of the things that went so wrong there.
 
Unfortunately, my decision might be made for me shortly because if my car is going to start acting up again, I will have no choice but to abandon ship and go home.  It already has a starting problem and if I have to start putting coolant in it again and start taking it back up to the shop again I will have no one to help me out.  I will have to fork out money for a rental car every time as well as the money to fix whatever is wrong.  It would be far better for me to take it up to my brother in Tennessee and have him look at it and if needed have him help me find a tide-me-over car for a couple grand and unload this car of a million problems. 
 
Back when all of this upheaval started, I asked God what in the world was going on and what I needed to do about it.  Thus far, He has only stated, “ You need to learn to ride the wave.”  I am literally flying blind and just taking each day as it comes and trying to understand that any control I thought I had now seems to be gone.  Circumstances are taking over and ushering in a new reality.  I have known that I was racing against a ticking time bomb with my car, my job and my finances and it appears the bomb is starting to detonate, it appears I have lost the race, it appears that I am watching myself crash in slow motion… But I have to continue to ride this wave to its destination leaning not on my own understanding and trusting that the wave will take me to where I need to be regardless of how uncomfortable I am while in transit.  
 
God may call it riding the wave, but I think I am learning how to trust.  My trust meter is really low for myself and for others.  Erwin had this to say recently, “…many of you are wondering where your opportunities are, but they have been there all along, you just treated them like giants and ran from them in fear…” This is especially true regarding some opportunities that have come across my path.  They were awesome opportunities that any sane person would jump at, but I would find a list of reasons why I might not be a good fit.  As I said in my previous post, I have burned a lot of lies I have believed about myself – the easy part.  Now, I have the hard part – the part where I have to start acting as if the lies really are lies which, means stepping out of fear and into faith and facing these so called giants head on and trusting that I am fully capable.