My life on the flooded streets of Ghent

For the past week, the east coast has been experiencing quite a lot of rain.

That's probably an understatement.

It started raining last Saturday night. I remember because I was childsitting and the head of the bed I was sleeping in was right under the window. The sound of rain drops woke me up. It made me really happy because I like rain very much and it has not rained here in awhile. Off and on, off and on, all week long, the clouds dumped buckets of water upon our heads. And as it seemed, off and on, off and on, all week long, life went badly.

My car window regulator broke. I don't have $300 to fix my car right now, so I taped the window shut with duct tape so it wouldn't gap and drench the inside of my car.

Because it was raining so much, the ceiling in my room (and then the ceiling in the TV room) started leaking to the point that plaster began falling. Now there is exposed mold in my bedroom, all the furniture is in disarray from moving it out of the way of the leak, and I can't sleep in there until the landlord comes to fix the leak by ripping out a huge section of the ceiling.

I tried to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, but someone's fiance recently got his own place, so she took all her cooking utensils over there. After deciding to try and make cookies anyway, I somehow (probably in my distress over the rest of the week) forgot various ingredients and the dough was a sloppy mess.

Weddings - especially weddings in which one's sister is getting married - are very stressful to plan.

I have physically felt run down and in a funk all week.

This week, more than any other week after my return from Haiti, I've really felt like I'm not supposed to be here right now. In Norfolk, in Ghent where the streets flood like crazy when it rains and people have days off of school and work because the roads are impassable. I am a visitor, a guest. I don't have a lease. While I do have a job, I was perfectly up front with my boss when he hired me: I was not planning on being here past December and in fact, could leave at any time. My current decision is to move to St Louis in January, although there is always a chance I could pick up and leave tomorrow. That is where I'm supposed to be, where I was headed in July before my sister got engaged, where I am headed pretty much as soon as I can.

How much of me feeling rotten is because of physical illness/fatigue gained from years of running myself ragged, and how much of it is because I know this place is not where God intends for me to live my life and I am just visiting for a little while?

It stopped raining sometime last night, leaving a cold front in the wake of the tropical storm remnants. How long can it last?