Dear Santa Claus again

Thank you for the safe and sick-free travel. I know the sick-free part wasn't easy after my friends got sick just before I left, so I appreciate it. Thank you also for the snow. Can I have this much every year?


I know demand is high for good guys (all my friends want one too). I can only assume that this means they are on back order. Please send mine along when they become available again.

Happy New Year!

Dear Santa Claus

How have you been? Did you have a nice summer? How is your wife? I have been extra good this year, so I have a few special requests of what I want for Christmas.

1. Safe holiday travel with no missed layovers and no getting sick before I fly.

2. Snow for Christmas so I can go sledding.

3. A good guy to date.*

4. A fisheye lens, a new computer with better processing speeds, Photoshop, graded filters for shooting landscapes, and an external flash unit.

All I want is what is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.





* I realize this one doesn't exist. Maybe world peace instead?

And the waiting is the hardest part

I realized something in the past week or so. Being optimistic about the future and having the patience to wait for that bright future are two totally different things. Also, life isn't fair. But as my dad always said, "Nobody said anything about life being fair. But it's worth it."

Shouldn't you be in the other lane?

I'm a terrible backseat driver. Just last night, I had to hold my tongue so I didn't tell a friend I've known for years how to get to my house. She definitely knows where I live and needs no assistance from me. Today as I drove up that same road, I had an epiphany.

When I offer you directions or helpful suggestions while you are driving, it's not because I think you're an idiot who doesn't know where you're going. You're an idiot because you aren't driving the way I would drive.

Living in a Beach Boys song

A few weeks ago I was bored and browsing photography contest websites. I found one that I considered entering, but I ran out of time to compile/take pictures and I was too chicken to enter. But I've been thinking about it ever since. The contest theme was Homeland--where you live now, not necessarily where you were born. So here's what I would have entered and why.

When I was eight years old, my dad bought a cassette tape of Endless Summer by the Beach Boys. I loved it. My siblings and I would bring our tape player out and blast "Surfin' Safari" as we roller skated in the driveway. And even though I only knew the "inside outside U.S.A." part of the chorus of "Surfin U.S.A.", I sang along with gusto.

A few years ago I decided I was going to learn the real chorus. As I read the lyrics, I discovered that they were listing surfing beaches. Not only that, I had been to many of those beaches, or at least knew where they were and had driven past in the last year or so. I was living in a Beach Boys song.

In a nutshell, that's what makes this place so special to me. We do have an endless summer, with 80-degree days in December and sunshine almost every day. I've always loved the ocean, and now I can be at the beach with my toes in the sand in 10 minutes. I love the craziness of the beach on a big summer weekend. But more than that, I love the quieter months when I can enjoy the waves without the crowds. That's why I love my homeland.

Lessons Learned in Europe

My sister is a rock. She kept me from completely panicking on more than one occasion.
I do not react well to cigarette smoke.
Guidebooks are just opinions.
Don't fly Ryanair out of Ciampiano.
Spaniards are very enthusiastic people.
Three museums in one day is kind of insane, but doable.
You can get by just fine by pointing at menu items. Hand gestures work too.
The Pantheon and Eiffel Tower really do exist and are just as cool as you imagine they are.
A pear and two hot rolls don't count as breakfast and lunch.
Game shows are funnier if you don't understand them.
Maps are a good thing.
I don't know enough about history, art, music, or anything, really.
Food is better in its native country.
I like European chocolate, Gaudi, and Strauss.
Jet lag is crazy. Tylenol PM helps.
My sister and I look like sisters.
Metros and buses are awesome. Why don't we use them more here?
The world is an amazing place and I can't wait to see more.

A Realization

Ever since I graduated from college, I've been in the process of becoming a grown up. Getting a real job. Insuring my own car. Having my own cell phone plan. Paying bills like cable and gas. Working on my birthday. Planning trips to Europe.

For some reason this trip has stressed me out considerably. I want it to go well. No, I want everything to be perfect, but I know that won't happen, so I'll settle for it going well. My sister, who I'm taking the trip with, has been busy with school and such, and we decided that it would be easier if everything were in my name anyways. So I bought the plane tickets and booked the hotels. All that grown up activity has made me weary of being a grown up.

Tonight I'm packing and stressing about packing too much or too little and making lists of things to do tomorrow (get cash, convert cash to Euros, buy power adapter, sort out credit card, mail a package to my mom, pay all bills...). I took a break for yogurt with a friend. I said I was tired of being a grown up. He said that it's better than the alternative (and he would know). And I realized something: it's not being a grown up that I'm tired of. I like the freedom and the money and the accountability of it. I'm tired of being a grown up alone.