Like, hey 'n stuff! Apparently, if I stop traveling, I stop writing in my travel blog. Luckily, some folks have been traveling to me lately!
Since I last posted, though, I've had three of my favorites come visit me on separate weekends (!!) In early May, before shipping out across the sea, dear, sweet MJ stopped in VA for a few days to hang out, drink beer and get in trouble (lol, we're both too loud): we had a blast! We didn't really do much else, but whatever we do is usually the funniest thing ever. We laugh like hyenas together. Wild ones (not the kind at the zoo).
Growing up and moving all over the world is awesome, I fully support it. Yet, damn, I realize how much I miss people when I actually see them. Since I was living in Chicago when MJ moved to Alaska, it didn't seem like I'd miss him much more than I already did, though Detroit is much closer to Chicago than Alaska. We're definitely two of the same nuts in the trail mix together and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to spend time with him (all to myself!) before he got the hell out of dodge.
The following weekend, my most favorite man came to visit: Big Mike!!! Weeeee!!! He rode his motorcycle to the G double Oh, all the way from Livonia! Whoa! I don't even think his butt hurt too much, either. Once again, it was another quick, short weekend that went by too fast but was full of food, motorcycle rides and laughter. My poppa is the awesomest and I love him sooooooo much!!
After having my people in town two weekends in a row, I got kind of bummed out for the following week or so. It dawned upon me that I really don't have many friends here (think I'm still hovering at around 3 or 4) and how lonely I am without people who know me to the core, that aren't still going through the process of learning my quirks and crazy spells, and vice versa! Yet, I'm so lucky to have these friends/family from all over the place that I can catch up with so easily and spend quality time with when they're around.
Once again, having the patience to wait it out and see where life goes here. I don't always have to be a social butterfly but it is nice to have a few friends. And I do. It's just so different from India, where there were 50 built in friends all the time and you had to carve time away from them so you could have alone time. It was pretty much the same in Chicago, working at the Teege: 60 built in besties, all the time. Now, not so much, but I'm learning to embrace my new found social independence to do more projects (like beginning to write a book and deciding that I should apply for jobs that I would love to do) and catch-up with friends I already have.
Plus, everyone I work with here is really amazing. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this once, twice or thrice. Yet, I'm in the middle age-wise. The receptionists are young and have their boyfriends, the nurses are older and have families/husbands/ex-husbands/kids/grandkids that keep them busy when they're not at work. There is definitely a sense of familial solidarity that I get from the relationships at work, which makes doing a job that I don't have particular passion for doable. I just wish I could bring them home with me and make them drink beer with me. I have Auntie and UK for that, but it's just not the same. They're like my roommies. They're always here.
Sure, this close-knit environment gets a little too dramatic (we're all women!) and I want to set off running for the hills, Iron Maiden style. There is a lot of gossip and BS'ing that takes place on a daily basis, and it's easy to make trivial things seem like a big deal the way they get blown out of proportion. It's maybe a part of the job that I like at times and dislike at others, but overall, it's silly if you can manage to not get caught up in it. Somedays, I reel at how dramatic the lives of those around me have been and I'm exhausted in a drama-by-association kind of way!
All drama aside, I have been kind-of seeing a boy (a man, really, he's 32 and six foot five, lol), so that helps to pass the time and give me a sense of companionship. However, I don't want to be too demanding of his time and put a lot of pressure on him to hang out, like he's my only friend or something. We've decided that we're just "playing it cool" (whatever that means, I've been out of the dating scene for half a decade) but I think we like each other. Enough. I would tell you his name, but a.) it's not quite worth mentioning yet, and b.) he doesn't really like his name (for good reason), so I call him something else anyway: T-Dow. Stands for tall drink of water. Yup, I'm clever, hahahaha. He actually likes it.
So, yeah, he's pretty cool. Totally a country boy and a self-identified redneck who makes fun of me for being a "Yankee" (which, I'm a Midwesterner, I hardly identify with such a title, though I do refer to soda as pop, because that's what it is). He's an electrician (creepy) and he owns his own house (which is a bachelor pad so uncleanly kept it's even more creepily reminiscent of my own father's house), has never been married, has no kids, isn't a total weirdo, has two dogs and two cats that are just as sweet and laid back as he is: he's not so bad. He kind of reminds me of Hoyt from True Blood (yup, it's back for it's fifth season and it's trashier than ever), aside from the Western shirt (which I am still working on finding one for T, haha): he's just got that air of being a tall, sweet, kind of gumpy, southern man. Despite how sweet we both are, we quibble constantly. It's funny though because we're super honest and call each other out on our BS and don't like taking it near as much as dishing it, which leads to some hilarious, light-hearted bickering. Mostly for the amusement of others.
On the other hand, we lack a lot of common interests (him eating meat, me not so much), but they're mostly superficial, surface things. I refer to us as "polar opposites" most of the time, as we hardly agree on anything. He dislikes tattoos and dreadlocks and I think he's disgusting because he never drinks water and survives solely on root beer and orange pop, lol. Opposites attract, right Paula Abdul?
We do have commonalities in how we treat other people, we're both former "fat kids" and can understand how it affects our current identities, we love our families and would do anything for them: these are the things that are really important, even if I don't think Mel Brooks' movies are as funny as he does or if he thinks Wes Anderson films are kind of boring. Either way, we have intelligent, two-sided conversations which keeps life interesting. More interesting than discussing the weather and town gossip. We'll see what happens. It's nice to have a friend either way.
I even introduced him to Jocelyn (she was willing to, I wouldn't have made her hang with him if she didn't want to!) last weekend when she was here. She wasn't impressed, lol, nor was she feeling 100%.
She and I had as much fun as we could, including JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE FROM 13,500 FEET ABOVE THE EARTH! Definitely one of the most bad-ass things I've ever done. I wasn't even nervous, maybe I'm a natural? I totally want to do that again. and again. and again. Maybe even without a person strapped to my back! It's one expensive hobby, though, I might have to wait for my flirty 30's for that one, once I have my student loan paid off.
Having Jocelyn here really was amazing. It was nice to have her all to myself for four days, despite her feeling so ill the whole time. I wasn't trying to go out and party or hang out all night, I was content to merely spend time chatting with and loving on her. She brings me back to myself and helps me reset when I see her. Something about our relationship makes me feel like myself (whoever that is!) She knows me better than any other person in the world, the closest person I have on earth to a sister, and I'm so thankful that despite what she's seen me through and seen me do, she still loves me and wants to continue this friendship til the end. I'm OK with that :-) She's just as lovely, if not more. Her heart is bigger than mine and she has more patience than I do.
It was really hard to leave her at the airport on Monday, but luckily I'll see her in less than two weeks when I head home for my big Midwestern adventure! A whirlwind tour of Detroit and Chicago will have me (likely) not sleeping enough and partying too hard, I'll need a vacation to recover from my vacation! It will be nice to get to spend some time with Dad, grandma and any other willing members of the Harkins clan. I'll even get to see my mom and Ken and some of her clan whilst in MI. I'm telling you, it's going to be BONKERZ. For real, yo!
So, there is much to look forward to! Part of this new found social independence has helped me become a total homebody. I haven't gone out dancing or for karaoke since I arrived here in January. I'm thinking I'll have to do both when I go home this summer. I've only been to Richmond itself like four times (I'm so lame!). Despite being a homebody and how hard it is to get me away from the pool in the backyard now that summer's in full swing, I still crave that city life of staying out all night with my friends and being an anonymous wild-woman on the dance floor or the microphone at a trashy dive-bar. Rawr!
Enough said. I've missed my blog. I'll be sure to write more once I'm on the road again (in just a week or so!) In the meantime, enjoy the pictures below, you may recognize some familiar faces!
Since I last posted, though, I've had three of my favorites come visit me on separate weekends (!!) In early May, before shipping out across the sea, dear, sweet MJ stopped in VA for a few days to hang out, drink beer and get in trouble (lol, we're both too loud): we had a blast! We didn't really do much else, but whatever we do is usually the funniest thing ever. We laugh like hyenas together. Wild ones (not the kind at the zoo).
Growing up and moving all over the world is awesome, I fully support it. Yet, damn, I realize how much I miss people when I actually see them. Since I was living in Chicago when MJ moved to Alaska, it didn't seem like I'd miss him much more than I already did, though Detroit is much closer to Chicago than Alaska. We're definitely two of the same nuts in the trail mix together and I really enjoyed having the opportunity to spend time with him (all to myself!) before he got the hell out of dodge.
The following weekend, my most favorite man came to visit: Big Mike!!! Weeeee!!! He rode his motorcycle to the G double Oh, all the way from Livonia! Whoa! I don't even think his butt hurt too much, either. Once again, it was another quick, short weekend that went by too fast but was full of food, motorcycle rides and laughter. My poppa is the awesomest and I love him sooooooo much!!
After having my people in town two weekends in a row, I got kind of bummed out for the following week or so. It dawned upon me that I really don't have many friends here (think I'm still hovering at around 3 or 4) and how lonely I am without people who know me to the core, that aren't still going through the process of learning my quirks and crazy spells, and vice versa! Yet, I'm so lucky to have these friends/family from all over the place that I can catch up with so easily and spend quality time with when they're around.
Once again, having the patience to wait it out and see where life goes here. I don't always have to be a social butterfly but it is nice to have a few friends. And I do. It's just so different from India, where there were 50 built in friends all the time and you had to carve time away from them so you could have alone time. It was pretty much the same in Chicago, working at the Teege: 60 built in besties, all the time. Now, not so much, but I'm learning to embrace my new found social independence to do more projects (like beginning to write a book and deciding that I should apply for jobs that I would love to do) and catch-up with friends I already have.
Plus, everyone I work with here is really amazing. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this once, twice or thrice. Yet, I'm in the middle age-wise. The receptionists are young and have their boyfriends, the nurses are older and have families/husbands/ex-husbands/kids/grandkids that keep them busy when they're not at work. There is definitely a sense of familial solidarity that I get from the relationships at work, which makes doing a job that I don't have particular passion for doable. I just wish I could bring them home with me and make them drink beer with me. I have Auntie and UK for that, but it's just not the same. They're like my roommies. They're always here.
Sure, this close-knit environment gets a little too dramatic (we're all women!) and I want to set off running for the hills, Iron Maiden style. There is a lot of gossip and BS'ing that takes place on a daily basis, and it's easy to make trivial things seem like a big deal the way they get blown out of proportion. It's maybe a part of the job that I like at times and dislike at others, but overall, it's silly if you can manage to not get caught up in it. Somedays, I reel at how dramatic the lives of those around me have been and I'm exhausted in a drama-by-association kind of way!
All drama aside, I have been kind-of seeing a boy (a man, really, he's 32 and six foot five, lol), so that helps to pass the time and give me a sense of companionship. However, I don't want to be too demanding of his time and put a lot of pressure on him to hang out, like he's my only friend or something. We've decided that we're just "playing it cool" (whatever that means, I've been out of the dating scene for half a decade) but I think we like each other. Enough. I would tell you his name, but a.) it's not quite worth mentioning yet, and b.) he doesn't really like his name (for good reason), so I call him something else anyway: T-Dow. Stands for tall drink of water. Yup, I'm clever, hahahaha. He actually likes it.
So, yeah, he's pretty cool. Totally a country boy and a self-identified redneck who makes fun of me for being a "Yankee" (which, I'm a Midwesterner, I hardly identify with such a title, though I do refer to soda as pop, because that's what it is). He's an electrician (creepy) and he owns his own house (which is a bachelor pad so uncleanly kept it's even more creepily reminiscent of my own father's house), has never been married, has no kids, isn't a total weirdo, has two dogs and two cats that are just as sweet and laid back as he is: he's not so bad. He kind of reminds me of Hoyt from True Blood (yup, it's back for it's fifth season and it's trashier than ever), aside from the Western shirt (which I am still working on finding one for T, haha): he's just got that air of being a tall, sweet, kind of gumpy, southern man. Despite how sweet we both are, we quibble constantly. It's funny though because we're super honest and call each other out on our BS and don't like taking it near as much as dishing it, which leads to some hilarious, light-hearted bickering. Mostly for the amusement of others.
On the other hand, we lack a lot of common interests (him eating meat, me not so much), but they're mostly superficial, surface things. I refer to us as "polar opposites" most of the time, as we hardly agree on anything. He dislikes tattoos and dreadlocks and I think he's disgusting because he never drinks water and survives solely on root beer and orange pop, lol. Opposites attract, right Paula Abdul?
We do have commonalities in how we treat other people, we're both former "fat kids" and can understand how it affects our current identities, we love our families and would do anything for them: these are the things that are really important, even if I don't think Mel Brooks' movies are as funny as he does or if he thinks Wes Anderson films are kind of boring. Either way, we have intelligent, two-sided conversations which keeps life interesting. More interesting than discussing the weather and town gossip. We'll see what happens. It's nice to have a friend either way.
I even introduced him to Jocelyn (she was willing to, I wouldn't have made her hang with him if she didn't want to!) last weekend when she was here. She wasn't impressed, lol, nor was she feeling 100%.
She and I had as much fun as we could, including JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE FROM 13,500 FEET ABOVE THE EARTH! Definitely one of the most bad-ass things I've ever done. I wasn't even nervous, maybe I'm a natural? I totally want to do that again. and again. and again. Maybe even without a person strapped to my back! It's one expensive hobby, though, I might have to wait for my flirty 30's for that one, once I have my student loan paid off.
Having Jocelyn here really was amazing. It was nice to have her all to myself for four days, despite her feeling so ill the whole time. I wasn't trying to go out and party or hang out all night, I was content to merely spend time chatting with and loving on her. She brings me back to myself and helps me reset when I see her. Something about our relationship makes me feel like myself (whoever that is!) She knows me better than any other person in the world, the closest person I have on earth to a sister, and I'm so thankful that despite what she's seen me through and seen me do, she still loves me and wants to continue this friendship til the end. I'm OK with that :-) She's just as lovely, if not more. Her heart is bigger than mine and she has more patience than I do.
It was really hard to leave her at the airport on Monday, but luckily I'll see her in less than two weeks when I head home for my big Midwestern adventure! A whirlwind tour of Detroit and Chicago will have me (likely) not sleeping enough and partying too hard, I'll need a vacation to recover from my vacation! It will be nice to get to spend some time with Dad, grandma and any other willing members of the Harkins clan. I'll even get to see my mom and Ken and some of her clan whilst in MI. I'm telling you, it's going to be BONKERZ. For real, yo!
So, there is much to look forward to! Part of this new found social independence has helped me become a total homebody. I haven't gone out dancing or for karaoke since I arrived here in January. I'm thinking I'll have to do both when I go home this summer. I've only been to Richmond itself like four times (I'm so lame!). Despite being a homebody and how hard it is to get me away from the pool in the backyard now that summer's in full swing, I still crave that city life of staying out all night with my friends and being an anonymous wild-woman on the dance floor or the microphone at a trashy dive-bar. Rawr!
Enough said. I've missed my blog. I'll be sure to write more once I'm on the road again (in just a week or so!) In the meantime, enjoy the pictures below, you may recognize some familiar faces!
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| where I spend most of my time when I'm not at work... |
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| pool pup. |
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| he's such a babe! just looking at his goofy smile makes me laugh out loud. |
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| hard to take photos, hang on, and not drop the phone all at once. |
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| country roads do take me home. |
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| big mike, bad-ass. |
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| our backyard looks like a four-star resort. poor me. |
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| poor, poor me. |
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| perfect day: "you ain't ever gonna burn my heart out." |
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| baby face (t-dow) |
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| the Southeast's version of iHop: everything comes with pancakes! |
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| doxie. |
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| loki. |
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| baby kittnes! ash on the left, smoke on the right. (I call ash "Ashole" and smoke "Smoke Rings" because they're usually up to no good. together). |
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| oh yeah, the garden is THRIVING! |
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| harvest a little squash, drink a couple beers. sounds like Friday. |
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| 10 minutes and counting from jumping out of a plane: what!?!? |
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| she either didn't want to have her photo taken or go skydiving. I'll presume the former. |
