Today I spent the my morning and afternoon surfing the internet for information on travel in Germany.  In the last month, as a way to prepare for my 11 day visit this January, I've been planning and learning about Germany each day.  These preparations are vastly different from those leading me to my current job at Woodstock; initiated 13 months ago.

The song which I closely relate to my India-decision is a slow moving song, One Fast Move.  The title track, from a side project composed by Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar, is one of the better songs created by the unlikely duo connected by a mutual appreciation for Jack Kerouac's life and work.  I appreciate Gibbard's melodic vocals far more than Farrar's.  In this song he sings of a disillusioned Kerouac, who's life desperately  requires a sea change.

In the months following the release, I streamed their live performance whenever the studio recordings were not on heavy rotation.  I also found myself watching their performance at The Varsity Theater that winter.  While standing amid the crowd, I knew this song struck a chord in my collective consciousness.  I didn't know the significant impact it would have on my decisions further on up the road.

Eventually the youth minster in me was leading the mission trips I'd planned that prior winter.  While reading the Fountainhead on a flight from Miami to New Orleans, I decided to make my break.  A bold act to regain my greatly atrophied self-respect.  I was exhausted from finishing one mission trip and seamlessly beginning another.  Any alternative to being away from the office in Eagan proved less draining, but leading 5 mission trips proved grueling.

Desperate to get out, unknowing of what would follow, I put in my resignation letter and left at month's end.  I accepted the first job offered.  October was spent selling my car record player/ stereo, saying my goodbyes and filling out paper work while I waited for a work visa.  It came 5 days before Halloween and it was one fast move, and/or I'm gone.

Afterthought: The next time I'm driving up 35W, Minneapolis skyline growing in the windshield, I can listen to this song and reflect upon my "moves" and their relation to unmoving.  (taken at the Varsity Theater concert no less).