Dispatch from the 'Burgh.

I'm back, in gold and black.

This will not land as breaking news to most, but our family relocated from Austin, TX, to Pittsburgh, PA, this summer. Thus, the quiet and lack of words from me. I had loads of feelings and ideas I could have shared over these last few months, but if I had tried to articulate them they probably would have been the written equivalent of a strangled groan. So, you’re welcome. I spared y’all.

Here are a few quick lessons I’ve learned in the last few months:

• I won’t be adopting "yinz". I’ve been fully indoctrinated already. "Y’all" is the best option for the second-person plural pronoun already, thanks.

• Moving across the country in your overloaded minivan isn’t glamorous. Add a cat to that scenario, and you’re in for some weird times. After 10 or 15 minutes of constant meowing and increasingly desperate attempts to escape her kitty carrier, we let June roam the vehicle. Not the safest option, I know, but you try to force-feed a sedative to an angry feline at a roadside rest area.

• There are a lot of bridges here. Three rivers, 446 bridges. Read it and weep, Venice.

• You can lose your ability to cry or experience real emotions when you say goodbye too many times. I wish I hadn’t had to learn this lesson, but I did, and I’m still not sure that I’ve gotten all of my feelings back.

• There are annoying, strange people everywhere.

• There are humble, kind people everywhere.

• Moving to a new place when you’re in your forties is harder than when you’re in your early thirties. Maybe you become more rigid over time, and your capacity for change diminishes. I think there’s something to this.

• Now that I’m in a milder climate, my body is strongly registering that I truly couldn't handle the heat in Austin. My people (Anglos) were made to wander the moors, searching for their sheep and dodging cloud bursts.

• Chipmunks are adorable. They’re everywhere here. Can you imagine anything cuter than a chipmunk with cheeks stashed full of seed? They might be my new spirit animal.

I plan to write more for the memoir project and hope that the poems I have brewing will be worth sharing soon.

Peace, friends.