There is no ceremonious way to say goodbye.  It's awkward, and never as meaningful as you'd like it to be.  We end up making jokes, or saying something stupid or mildly inappropriate, and the moment is lost. But it just reminds you that it's not forever.  It's not even that long a time?  Down the line, we'll make so many more moments that one lost one is not a big deal in the long run. So, later,

As we loaded the car with all my junk, I couldn't help but feel like the situation was made out to be more serious than it actually was.As I rode down Melrose Avenue, I distinctly thought that I maybe should be feeling more than I was at the time.As I made my way through airport security, I felt weird looking back at my family and waving each time. 1, 2, 3 times as I pulled my laptop out of my

It's just past 5am on September 28, 2008, and there is no more denying that I am about to begin. In just a few hours, I'll be getting on a plane to start my staging, then training, and finally service in the Peace Corps.  It's hard to believe that I'm actually going through with this.  Don't get me wrong - I'm so excited to start.  What I mean is that I remember sitting in English class in the

M&MsWhite cheddar cheezitsTeddy Grahams (cinnamon, the red box, please)Seasoning packets (Hidden Valley Ranch, mac & Cheese sauce packets, pizza/italian seasoning)Drink mixes (sugar-free Kool-Aid, etc.)Gum Books Hemingway Gabriel Garcia Marquez John Steinbeck Anything you love - I'll read it. Letters! It costs 94 cents to send a letter. Do it today!CD mixes - anything you like. I'll love it

Upgrade: I'm getting off my ass right now. Downgrade: My intense laziness re: everything else these past two weeks. Let's just forget most of August happened.

Hey funny bunnies. Upgrade:Got a haircut today!Went to the gym for the first time in a while.Went grocery shopping and stocked up on healthy foodsTalked to my good friend Gina todayHelped a bit with cooking dinnerI'm sticking with the 100 push ups and I'm doing them right now, writing during my breaksDowngrade:Everything on my upgrade list was on my list to do 3 days ago.I'm supposed to leave for

While I'm admittedly pretty self-involved a lot of the time, that's not the (only) reason I decided to refresh this blog. I thought I'd share a few with you, if any of you are reading this. To begin, I don't presume that anything I'm writing about is particularly interesting (now, anyway).  Actually, the more I write the more I realize I don't really enjoy my own writing style.  I'm hoping that

I'd like to submit for your approval my hatred for Seth Marlow, a new friend of mine and Pop's regular who started the staff on the Hundred Push Up Challenge.   Okay, I obviously don't hate him, but I do hate pushups, and so I'm not terribly keen on embarking on this fitness experiment.  My main reason for doing it (and coincidentally my top reason for hating it) is that it's semi-public.  We all

The other day at work, Anna comes into the back room to tell me the story behind two people who were sitting at the counter.  It was a man and a woman, fairly young, and clearly on a date.  Anna tells me that not too long ago, the guy used to come in here with a different woman, and they had a cute habit of getting a fluffernutter sandwich and a grilled cheese, and splitting them.  Afterwards

Hey peeps -  Upgrade:Scanned pictures of my parents' wedding today.Watched a Netflix movie, breaking my expensive streak of leaving them on my nightstand.Mapped out my entire day tomorrow so I'll be all upgrades and no downgrades. Downgrade:Totally ignored the pushup challenge until just now, even though I'm reminded at work every day.Ate like four slices of pizza after work after I decided I

If there is one thing I learned in college, it's that I can improve.  No matter where I am in my life, I'll never be one to say that I am done. That's not to say I'm dissatisfied with who I am.  It's just that I think I can always do better. If there is another thing I learned in college, it's that I am a lazy-ass who will get out of anything if I can get away with it.  So if I'm going to set

As a "linguist" (I have the degree to prove it, dammit), I know that it is my duty to describe the uses of language and not prescribe a "correct" usage.  There is no one English language, but rather each one of us holds an idea of English in our heads, and hopefully they correspond for the most part. On the other hand, Mrs. Hill was a damn good English teacher in 10 grade and I'll forever be a

If I wait for a sign - some significant day to mark the beginning of my journal, I'll never start. So I made my own sign.

Whichever one means I'm doing this again. That's what I am. I think it's on the wagon. There's really no reason I'm doing this. It's probably detrimental to my productivity, which is extremely lacking at the moment. I'm not kidding. I have a ridiculous amount of backwork in my (imaginary) inbox, so this seemed like the perfect time to get on blogger and reinvigorate this crap. I'm an idiot.

In keeping with my semesterly attempts to better myself, I’ve gone ahead and forced myself to write here. Furthermore, again in the same theme, I’ll be writing about my New Year’s resolutions. You might fist realize that it’s not the new year. That was over two weeks ago. I know, I know. That’s my first strike. I haven’ I haven’t really done anything to improve myself since the ball dropped

When I grow up, I want to work some job that will let me flirt with old ladies. There's just something about completely innocent flirting that's so endearing, especially when it's only innocent on one side. I don't think I'll be able to, though. If TV tells us anything, it's that I'll have to be a doctor or a country club waiter to be able to do that. Damn those waiters. They get all the luck.

  I am jumping out of my skin. I can't take this anymore. 

How I feel about the Camino de Santiago in a sentence, a paragraph, and a page. I love the Camino de Santiago! I can't believe I actually did it! 740 km walking over one month. I made some new best friends and created some new best experiences. I didn't become the minimalists or independent I was planning on becoming, but plans seem to take a back seat to a lot on the Camino. Spain is

So, I am starting this blog over again. I've written a few things over the past two years, but it's nothing to sneeze at. It's better to just start from here. Down there, there's probably a lot of moping and boring things. Seriously, when I read it, I tell me to get over myself. I can't imagine what you'd get out of it. Honestly, there are some nice posts, like my sandwich conspiracy theory, but

Sometimes I feel like my entire life isn't what it's supposed to be. There are days when I care, but then weeks when I don't. I'm right there in one of those weeks. I hate the way I look those days - I don't shave, or put in my contacts. My other clothes are dirty and I wear things I don't like. I feel like I look significantly different this way, and I hate looking into the mirror one

After seven weeks of class and some painful research on mortality while transcending the boundaries of liminality, I made it! I'm going to Santiago de Compostela. I'm so screwed. I haven't been walking like I should have, so hopefully I'll get right on that. There's not much more I want to say, except... jealous?