• Drinking: Coffee
• Listening to: Fleet Foxes, Lorelai. The sort of song that makes you feel hope.
• Wearing: My last sundress for the summer… read on!

Hello, cheri!

I may have said it before, but this time I mean it: The blog is back in business.

How, you say, can you believe such a thing after I’ve been away so long? Well let me tell you: I’ll be blogging my heart out because it will be one of the only ways I can reach you, for I am on my way out.

But before I tell you any more, let me explain where I’ve been. I arrived back in Charleston just 10 short days ago to pack like mad, start & finish the beautiful Cry, the Beloved Country,  love on the home folk, lay on the beach & regain all my freckles (see photo above). And now the day of departure has come, & me & my bags are bursting at the seams –– me with excitement, the bags with, well, everything I could possibly fit inside them.*

Wondering what I’m up to? Read on.

In just four short hours I’ll be beginning a 20-hour sojourn to a far-away place, bursting with life & beautiful. Terrifying & inviting. Wounded but thriving. This time tomorrow, I’ll be landing in Johannesburg, South Africa, where I’ll be spending the summer (or should I say winter? It’ll be cold there.) as a foreign correspondent.

That’s right, this blog is about to get exotic.

Wish me bon voyage, cheri, & maybe even share what you’ll be up to this summer! I’d love to hear it. Until next time, j’adore! I’ll see you in South Africa.

{All roads lead to Johannesburg. Through the long nights the trains pass to Johannesburg. The lights of the swaying coach fall on the cutting-sides, on the grass and the stones of a country that sleeps. Happy the eyes that can close.                                                                         Alan Paton}

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*Margaret’s packing how-to’s.

(Probably more of a how-not-to than anything else.)

Step 1: There are no rules.

Step 2: Download Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” & blare it, getting lots of good woman-power-anthem energy.

Step 3: Forget packing — Let’s dance!

Step 4: Sit down to pack. (Also acceptable: Fall down from dancing too hard & catch your breath for a while, in proximity to suitcase.)

Step 5: Begin laundry.

Step 6: Lunch break!

Step 7: Conquer something small, like accessories.

Step 8: Change out laundry. Realize you never put detergent in the first time. Go back to Step 5.

Step 9: It’s too late to be discerning. Decide to just take it all!

Step 10: Sit on suitcase. Flip 90 degrees, sit on that side too. Zip, & finish. You’ve done well.