See you on the other side

This has been a summer unlike any other for me, most notably because it's been the first one since my middle school days where I didn't have a job. I was able to survive, thanks to the South Korea pension payments, a bit of savings, and some very low-key nights in front of a large-screen TV and the Boston Red Sox, a PlayStation3 and my DVD collection.

Since I finished teaching in South Korea, I have:

• Driven from Southern California to New Hampshire by way of the Grand Canyon
• Taken a teacher certification course in Prague
• Visited four European cities in seven days
• Returned home with no job
• Found a job in Prague
• Driven to Boston, D.C. and New York (twice) to secure paperwork for said job

And today, I finished packing my suitcase and backpack. At this time tomorrow (at least as I started to type this) I'll be in Logan Airport, waiting for the boarding call, as Baldy is in the good hands of the Lufthansa staff. I've spent much of my summer looking ahead, but today, I'm going to take a brief look back to salute all the people who enabled me to survive this summer in the States:

Ladies and gentlemen, my mattress the past two weeks.

• During my cross-country drive, these people offered their homes for Baldy and I to spend the night: Inga Hansen in Van Nuys, Cal.; Matt Wiley (Matta World Peace) in Colorado Springs and the Ol' Ball Coach, Dayton Owens and family in suburban K.C.
• I lived in the kids' playroom at my sister Beth Zinn's house, borrowed Mike Staples' basement bedroom (and bulkhead entrance) and housesat for the Margraf family -- all rent-free.
• Michael also sold me his perfectly good mountain bike for $50, a life-saving maneuver given that I didn't have a car. Speaking of which ...
• Beth also lent me her van to drive around Keene and to Sutton, Mass., for paperwork that will help Baldy join me overseas. I used the van to pick up my nieces Kate and Sarah at school.
• My mom let me drive around town and drove me around town, let me cook for her and cooked for me, let me buy her dinner and let me buy her dinner. 
• The Kibbees and Cooksons, my satellite families since elementary school, invited me to family outings and made me feel like part of the clan.
• Aunt Mary Lou and uncle J.P. hosted a July 4 party and gave me a bed and breakfast twice in late August to make the drives to New York much more manageable.
• Tom Copeland, brother of my biological mother, and the rest of the Copelands hosted me for a backyard barbecue and drag racing in Haverhill, plus organized a hike and cookout on Mount Monadnock.
• Some mornings just weren't complete without joining my brother-in-law Shawn for breakfast and the occasional political banter with his dad and sister at Lindy's Diner, where politicians visit during election season to pretend they care about the common folk.
• I got a new sportscoat courtesy of my sister's friend Carmen. It's so awesome, it's gray and goes with khakis.
• Baldy and I are heading to the airport today courtesy of Scott "Mon Ami" Folsom, who has agreed to make the four-hour round-trip in between classes at the college.

Craig Cookson, Jeff Cookson and me before we watched
the Super Bowl 46 champion Patriots beat the Chargers on Sunday.

Suffice it to say I feel extremely lucky to have great family and a wonderful support system. I'll miss it all very much. But not Katy Perry.

The next time you hear from me, I'll be on the other side of the Atlantic. Na schledanou.