Most of the Time

by Bob Dylan from Oh Mercy

Hello again on this President's Day. So what has been up? As I alluded to in my last entry, I have been trying to stay busy to help recover from my break-up. And what a busy little bee I have been. A few weeks ago, I hopped on a plane to Michigan and Ann Arbor for a college recruiting trip. Needless to say, going to Michigan in January is not the best in terms of weather. But even by Michigan standards, it was pretty damn cold. I think it was like 12 degrees the day I was there. Also I suffered through a terrible flight there on Northwest, which is the only airline that offers non-stop service to Detroit from the bay area, and I was in first class. It was also on that Michigan trip that I suffered through some insomnia, which meant I had to co-present the next day with no sleep. The day seems a bit of a blur but I do remember meeting up with Jude and Serene and their utterly adorable daughter. I also took a trip down memory lane at SI, which apparently still puts up pictures of me. After coming back from SI, I also did a recruiting trip to that other School of Information at UC Berkeley. After doing both trips in less than one week, I have to admit that college recruiting is no longer as fun as it used to be. I guess I was still jazzed from being a new grad but almost 4 years removed from school, it has worn off.

I also did take some time for R&R. I took a quick trip to Vegas to see Jon Stewart do stand-up at the Mirage. It was a hilarious show, even though I counted at least two jokes he recycled from the Daily Show. Stewart has the uncanny knack of dissecting events and politics in their utter ridiculousness. After he does it, it seems so common sense it makes me wonder why I didn't think of it myself. I guess that is why he is who he is and I am...well not.

The day after I got back from Vegas, I did the Kaiser SF Half Marathon along with CWP$ and Doris. The course was through Golden Gate park, which was very scenic although I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I could have seeing I was running 13 miles through it. I improved upon my time from the San Jose Half Marathon by over a minute and a half. I was worried about how I would perform on this marathon because insomnia I experienced in Michigan came back to hit me a few times. Hence, my training took a hit. Afterward, we chilled at Shannon's place to watch the Super Bowl, which was quite entertaining. Although New Orleans deserved to win, I still hate the thought of anything good happening for the nation's only Rhodes Scholar yet pretends to act like a complete dumbass governor, Bobby Jindal.

In other momentous news, I repaid all my student loans! Yup, I now fully repaid the government and all the banks all the money they lent me for my education. I never thought I would see the day. I guess this means that I can no longer excuse myself from donating back to my various alma maters. Prior to paying back my loan, I could claim that I was giving money to my alma maters - by giving them a far too large portion of my paycheck. I won't lie, it feels pretty damn good to have finally paid back the many thousands of dollars for all those years of school. How do I manage this feat one may ask? Well, I did mention I was going to buy a new car. I decided just to take the Highlander off Jinah's, my sister, hands. Hence all the money I was saving for the car went to pay off the remainder of my loans. Yeah I have become a walking cliche - a liberal who tries to do right by the environment by biking to work, recycling, bringing his own bags to the grocery store yet drives a SUV. In my defense, the SUV gets about the same mileage as my Maxima. Speaking of which, it will not be my Maxima anymore as of tomorrow. I decided to donate it to Habitat for Humanity. So the service they hired is picking it up tomorrow. As silly as it sounds, I am a bit sad to see it go. I drove the Maxima almost 9 years. In that time, there were many memories including driving to and back from Michigan twice, plenty of trips to SF, and Vishnu throwing up inside of it. Plus its not like the Maxima is that bad of shape. It still drives pretty well and aside from catching on fire once while parked, it didn't give me many problems. But it is time to say goodbye to it.

So recruiting trips to Michigan and Berkeley, going to Vegas to see Jon Stewart, running the half marathon, paying off my loans, switching out my car, plus I volunteered for the first time in long time last month - all these things are keeping me busy and keeping my mind off the break-up right? Well, yes they do help. They are welcome distractions to keep me from sulking. But yeah, there are times when I feel lonely and blue. Like on say Valentine's day. But I suppose things will get better and hurt less as time progresses. Plus I do have some things lined up - the new season of Lost will keep me occupied, along with Phil's bachelor party in Tahoe coming up, and oh yeah, a trip to Vegas to celebrate a project I worked on a few years ago. I ironically got the notification for the trip as I was leaving for Vegas to see Jon Stewart. So I will be heading back in a few weeks. So yeah, even more things to keep me busy. So I suppose that is how I am coping, living, and well, surviving. Until next time, peace.