Go West, Young Man

After waking up to an empty house and puttering around for a while, I got a phone call from Mary, which always makes me happy, and she said that she needed to buy a winter coat and that we should go to Bonn. Of course I was more than happy to oblige her, and, to mix things up a bit, we figured out how she could get to Niederkassel and I could meet her there and we could then take a bus to Bonn. This meant that I figured out that I can indeed walk the 2 km to Niederkassel in half an hour and it is really not all that bad. And the bus was relatively prompt and things worked out nicely and we found Mary a coat in Bonn (we also found a lot of really silly fake-fur based coats that Mary refused to buy) and wandered around and ate pastries and somewhere in the middle of all that I got a phone call from Experiment. The news you've all been waiting for has come through, and tomorrow I am getting on a train and going to Augsburg, which is in the heart of Bavaria. Yes, Bavaria. I am terrified but relieved. . . I'll be living now with a 52-year-old woman named Roswitha Hübl who has grown children but lives alone, and I've talked to her briefly on the phone and she seems very nice and I have good feelings about her. I can't believe I'm leaving my beloved Köln, though- how long is it going to be until I see the Dom again? Am I going to miss Karneval? I'm determined to come back up for it, but who knows if that will work? Having heard the news, Mary was of course equally sad that I am going so far from her- who can she call now to go to Bonn with her? What will we do without being able to laugh about the silly things we find at Mr Music (today, we discovered bluegrass versions of The Who songs)? My poor emotions are all mixed up- I'm really glad that I'm getting a new start in a new place and I think this "family" will be really good for me, and as sure as I am that Augsburg is a lovely town, it is not Köln and it never will be Köln.

Everything I own has been packed, and it turns out that I have a lot more stuff now than I brought with me, so wish me the best getting it all on the train- at least I don't have to change trains at all, just get on and then off three and a half hours later. And all I've got is the Liz Phair song that's been pulling itself forward for me recently, although the directions are umgekehrt (backwards, but with more of a sense of being turned-around that I like and that isn't found in the English word):
And I'm not looking forward to missing you
But I must have something better to do
I've got to tear my life apart
And go west, young man
And it feels like I've got something to prove
But in some ways it's just something to do
My friends turn me around and say,
"You go west, young man."
That would be "Go West," of course, and I'm going east, and have already gone oh-so-far east, but the idea's still there.

Have I gone and torn my life apart?