GENERAL UPDATE

EH ... JUST WHAT'S WHAT WITH A CAT..!

The meet with Nebraska not only exceeded my expectations, but was genuinely a meet between two people who were interested in one another.  I don’t know what this means, but I enjoyed listening to her talk about her newfound appreciation for running and of course, she looked beautiful.  It was a good time and I can see doing brunches and lunches with her periodically (especially since she did not "return the favor" and stand me up as payback for my missing our previous meet!).  And I could just as likely never purposely see her again for the rest of my life.

This is something that I haven’t dealt with directly in my journal for a while, but I did not choose to pick up and live alone* to go and add relationships to my life.  I am not a misanthrope by any stretch of the imagination, but neither do I think of myself as someone who is even interested in sharing experiences with others… which is why I don’t have souvenirs to detail my life’s travels, evidence of my claims to having “done this” and “gone there”.  It has always been enough that the people who were a part of my life knew that I had spent my life doing the things that I have laid claim to and that I have managed to take shots at the things that I have always wanted to do… like living here in Omaha.

For instance, if you stripped away my connection to my hometown’s professional sports teams, and, of course, Michigan State, from my identity, I don’t think anyone would think that I was not bred and born in Omaha.  After all, I only have good things to say about the city, and I feel as if it has embraced me.  I am not only trying to embrace the city back, but I am also trying to ingratiate myself into the social fabric of the local community. Talking about how Omaha compares to Detroit or any other place that I have lived in would be counter-productive and doing my life experience a great disservice.  I think that it is having been to different places, different areas of the country, the world, even, has wisened me to where I know better than to contrast and compare to what I have left behind.  It is hard to start something new when you are still replaying the same stories from where you are from.  Can’t evolve that way.

Next week I am going to purchase a round-trip ticket to South Bend, Indiana, so I can visit my friend Ken and his wife, Beth.  Though I am still undecided on starting school this fall and waiting for winter term, or going ahead and trying to make up for the work I will miss over my second vaycay, I am really looking forward to making the trip.  After all, it has been, along with my  a successful Carolina trip and progress in my spring term from my last academic year, the means I am using to determine if I had a good year or not… and so far, things have been just great!!