I have returned!
Saturday, Aug. 30, 2003 at 11:13 a.m.


Greetings all! I have returned from three weeks of traveling rejuvenated and motivated. Sometimes it takes getting away from your life for a while to break some of your bad habits. It's probably why I love traveling so much, only this time I'm trying to keep those habits broken.

First off, I don't want to be so much of a slob. I never cleaned my room, even as a kid, and even now it's a bit of a disaster even with most of my dirty laundry off the floor. I've always been really attached to location, to my sense of home. When I graduated high school and my parents moved away from the family home to Toronto I felt completely uprooted. It felt as if my home, any home, had been taken away from me and since then I've tried not to get attached to anyplace that I happened to live. After three years in this apartment, a fantastic roommate that made this place feel like a home for the first time, I'm sick of living temporarily. I'm cleaning, organizing, and keeping things up.

Part of the reason I have time to do this is I'm only going to take 8 credits this fall. I'm taking an English class (a required survey, but taught by a favorite professor that I've only had once before who has promised to keep things challenging), a class on 20th century middle-eastern history that I'm very excited about and, maybe beneficially enough, T'ai Chi Ch'uan. I'm trying to get over the feeling that I'm being lazy by reminding myself that I've basically been a part-time student for the last three of four years that I've gone to Wayne State on account of the fact I've dropped so many classes each semester. I'm leaving time for me this time, and feel good about that.

One of the things I'm thinking of doing with my newfound free time (and hopefully more relaxed state of mind) is to enter National Novel Writing Month. I don't know how far I'll get but I've been excited about the idea ever since I heard about it a few years ago. I write well but tend to be a perfectionist and have very little actual output. That's part of the reason an online diary was so appealing, because it gets me writing about something that I can easily discuss at length: myself!

These changes are coming in good time because several of my friends are in crisis at the moment. Usually, that's my job, and it feels good to be healthy enough to support them for a change without sapping my own energy. So, wish me luck, and look for frequent updates.

Is it possible to start over at 23? It sure feels like that's what I'm doing.


I'm listening to a mix-cd I made for my friend David (currently Police & Thieves by The Clash)
I'm reading Islam by Karen Armstrong, The Iron Wall by Avi Shlaim and T'ai Chi Ch'uan by Cheng Man-ch'ing
I want nowhere, it's still in the morning

Previous:
- - Thursday, Oct. 27, 2005
back yet again - Thursday, Aug. 04, 2005
Batman - Friday, Jun. 17, 2005
Just fucking around today - Sunday, May. 22, 2005
pre-birthday - Saturday, Apr. 30, 2005