A Continuation...

(...in terms of expanding on themes of the last post, and in the sense of continuing onward in this crazy life's journey.)

This past year and a few months has made me begin to wonder if I'm bound to wander for the rest of my days. From place to place I'll go, mainly avoiding the rain and snow. I've never been one to stay in a place for too long. I blame/credit (it depends on how you look at things... in this context, let's credit) my childhood split between two parents on opposing sides of the mighty Mississippi. During the school year I spent my days running through the cornfields of the Midwest, while summertime saw me shanking people in dark alleyways of the gritty Tri-State area. Every other Christmas usually found me on either coast, panicking and pizzaing my way down windy mountain passes while singing a strained version of The Beatles' "Help!" or picking oranges in my paternal grandmother's backyard for breakfast before a day at the bowling alley (in getting there, I remember as she got older she sat on a phone book to drive - or maybe she didn't, and I'm recreating my memory with someone else's story - and the sun would lighten the maroon interior to more of a pink, and I would stare in wide-eyed terror at the upward jutting bones in her wrists and worry that mine were going to grow and grow and grow just the same and I would have to have an operation to shave them down when I got older... Where were we?). It wasn't until college that I actually stayed in a state for a good majority of the year. Even freshman year didn't keep me in Chicago long as I moved back to Missouri in June. Let's just say it's in my blood (along with my great dislike of packing - despising it, even - and I think that goes under the 'blame' part of my childhood, though getting there was always half the fun... just the packing and unpacking process, because you knew a big change was about to happen, and it was such a pain, and I always over-packed or forgot something and both of those things are pains in themselves, and I really had a cohesive theme running in my mind for this post - I swear! Plans change.).

At the same time, I'm looking forward to settling down somewhere for (at least) a year or so when I get back to the States; working on getting established as some sort of paid writer (whether my name's in the byline or not) and saving up for my next journey abroad.

I'm enjoying the people I'm meeting in these places. Summer of 2005 I was a camp counselor in Maine, and I remember thinking how never had I ever been in a place with such a high concentration of cool/interesting people (outside of my family and homegrown friends - duh!). I felt the same in Korea, and I'm beginning to feel that way again here. Everybody is young and attractive and friendly and funny, and I think it's going to be a great 6ish (no, no, no - I won't re-sign for more! I need to go home one day... gotta let this life food digest) months. It's always nice to meet people that have things in common with you, right? The love of adventure and travel and an extraordinary opportunity, who won't settle for anything less than the best out of life = my kind of people. And so I am reminded, as I usually am many times a day in people watching/social interactions:

...they danced down the street like dingledodies, and I shambled after them as I've been doing all my life after the people who interest me, because the only ones for me are the mad ones, the ones mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!" (Mr. Jack Kerouac's On the Road.)

Highlights of today: eating a CHEESE sandwich!!! (cheese is a bit scarce in Korea, but they have plates piled high here!! Buffet every day - whoamygosh!) and sea kayaking in the crystal clear calm waters. I'd think of more to ramble on about, but I need to get some gee-tar playing in before yoga at 6:30.

Training starts Friday!!

It's hot here. Like sweatstache hot - I've never been a sweatstache kind of person, so that's how you know it's hot hot. Yeah.