Well, with huge thanks to a couple of friends, I’m not going to be homeless, after all. However, to accomplish this, there’s something I have to do:
I’m leaving the USA, and returning to England. Hopefully, only temporarily.
This isn’t something I want to do at all. But I don’t have a choice, if I’m to get the financial and medical help I need. I really need to get help with my depression (or possibly bipolarity), and my anxiety attacks, and take control of my life. I can’t do that if I’m in the USA; I have no medical insurance. Plus, of course, I need to avoid ending up on the street – something which I probably wouldn’t survive if it happened.
I’ve lived here for a little over six and a half years and, despite keeping my British accent, I think of myself as a “closet American”. I fell in love with America and its culture back in 1994, when I first visited the country. And I’ve barely scratched the surface of what America has.
I do still have the option of returning to the USA, so long as I do before a year elapses from my departure date (June 25), and I’ll be able to still use my green card if I accomplish that. So I’ve really got to get my arse in gear and get things back on track if I’m to return. All being well, getting help with my mental-health problems can get me started – though naturally, it’s not as if I can just sit there and it all happen magically.
I was very depressed about the prospect, even knowing that it was for my own good. But the possibility of moving back to the USA is something I can focus on as a long(ish)-term goal. And it’s not as if I’m disappearing from Twitter, or my blogs, or the Minecraft community, or the Internet in general. So things could have been a great deal worse. And I’m sure as hell not splitting up with Kristal, even though I’ll be 3,500 miles from her instead of 500. I love her way too much.
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The itinerary as it stands is that I will leave from New York on Monday 25 June, and arrive in Dublin, Ireland on Tuesday morning. From there, I have a little under four hours to somehow get to Dun Laoghaire for the ferry to Holyhead, and on by train to Manchester. Finally, all being well, I’ll be met at Manchester to go to my temporary abode, with SudoRossy and his family in Bolton.1
I say “somehow” because I’m having the worst time trying to figure out if public transport will actually get me down the 14 miles to Dun Laoghaire – and I’ll probably lose an hour or so going through the rigmarole of getting off the plane, through baggage collection and Customs, and out to the bus station. Still, I have a few more days to work that out. I don’t really fancy taking RyanAir from Dublin to Manchester; I’ve heard and read bad things, and I don’t really have the money to deal with the additional charges… money’s seriously limited. Anyone near Dublin Airport got a catapult to Dun Laoghaire, or something?
EDIT: Ironfruit and Bethness have provided me with a link to the bus timetable from the airport to Dun Laoghaire, and it only takes 45 minutes, so that should be good – thanks, guys!
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1 Although the Ross family are letting me stay with them for a while, they’re not the ones who paid for my travel to England. I’m keeping that person’s identity a secret, out of respect for their privacy.