Departure

I wrote this earlier, but am finally getting to post it:

First off, I’m new to blogging. I was trying to catch up and was averaging a page per day before I realized that most of these details are pretty trivial. So, welcome to my sleek, new blogging style (the less sleek style was never posted).

I did get to DC because my friend Chris skipped class to make the drive up with me through the night. We stayed at a fraternity brother’s apartment in Alexandria and took the metro, so traffic was never that bad. We had pretty good tickets to the inauguration, but so did thousands of other people, and we barely made it through the mob of a line before the event started. I missed Biden swearing in, but got to soak in the presidential swearing in and the speech. From where I was, using the high zoom lens on my camera, I could totally tell which speck was Obama. I didn’t even have to look in a jumbo-tron.

After the speech I went back and took a nap, then went and helped manage the line outside the Youth Ball. After the line was gone, we got to go in and hang out, which was great, even though all the concerts, etc, were already done.

Highlights of the trip:
1. Seeing a few of the people I worked with. I didn’t see everyone I wanted to see, but the best part of the trip was definitely the few folks that I ran into up there. Good luck in D.C. and I wish you all the best. Special thanks to those that helped me with tickets!
2. Seeing Bush leave the ceremony in his helicopter. Strangely, seeing him leave was almost as reassuring as seeing Obama take office.
3. Ford Porter giving us a place to sleep and hilariously, drunkenly, remembering Rhodes and getting updates about other graduates.

Drove back the day after, and with the exception of Les’s birthday, a few good meals, and a night of halo and beerpong, I spent the rest of my time in the U.S. packing. Les gave me a small book that a lot of friends wrote a couple pages of goodbye’s in, and it’s my new most prized possession. Thanks everyone, and I’ll miss you all.

Things I indulged in before I left:
Burgers
Texas de Brazil
Root beer floats
Beerpong
Doritos
Fried cheddar cheese cubes
Homemade Muscadine wine (gotta love Mississippi)
Gus’s fried chicken
Homemade Pizza
Samuel Adams
Steak Escape
Halo
Friends

Things I bet I’ll miss (to be confirmed or denied later):
Everything from the indulgences.
English
Constant internet access
My Car
My Creature


Creature comforts that I brought:
Jeans
Arrested Development
Eddie Izzard, Dress to Kill
Pictures
I think that’s it…

My view of the capitol.

Looking back at the mall.

Chris and I at the Youth Ball

Obviously still figuring out the posting of photos. I'm in Thailand now after the flight, bus ride, etc. I'll have internet for the next week and will try to post a couple times, but it will probably get sparse after that. I don't think I've been here long enough to decide whether or not I'm jet-lagged, but I definitely have lost a whole day of my life in transit. Hope all is well back home, and more to come soon.

The Garage Sale

So I don't know how to start a blog other than to just write about what I'm doing. Today is the second day of my two-day garage sale, and my house is still full, It's just missing most of my (former) favorite things. I realized that I was going to have to get rid of everything, but I didn't think it would suck this much. I think that the idea of leaving everything, of shedding the world, is a lot more appealing when you don't have to part with each belonging individually for a quarter of it's worth and to some grim old antique dealer. At least it's slow right now, because it's 9am on a Sunday in Memphis. If that doesn't automatically make sense to you, then you probably haven't spent much time in the Bible Belt.

Last night I went with Les to see my friend's play, The History Boys, and spent the small amount of time before the show and that of the intermission frantically emailing a few of my friends from the campaign looking for an extra ticket to the inauguration this week. They came through big time, finding a second ticket for my driving partner, and thereby allowing me to make the trip at all. But now I just got off the phone and my friend doesn't think he can go anymore because he won't get back in time for a class, so I need to start working on finding someone else that wants to go...

Waiting to hear back.. In the mean time, I bought a camera specifically for my time in Thailand, and I intend on a lot of this blog to be pictures. Two reasons: 1) I think I'm a better photographer than a writer, and 2) in theory, this will be quicker, making it more likely that I'll be able to post more often. We'll see about #2, but in the mean time I thought I would post some pictures of the house. except that I couldn't find many good ones and that I need to work on finding someone else to travel with. The gripping conclusion and some photos to follow...