being with my friends here at purdue gives me such a sense of renewal that i'm even feeling positive about returning to teach in Merrillville in a few weeks. that's how amazing they are. i'm also picking up a bad case of wonderlust here. in my head i'm dreaming of driving my car with the windows car, well more precisely jeff and i are in his convertible with the top down, driving on local highways all the way through michigan towards the massive mackinaw bridge. we stop to see what interests us, sampling the food at random small eateries along the way with good lemonade. that's my dream, a little bit more of freedom.

oh, and tonight i realized that there are so many amazing things one can spend their days doing that its not the end of the world if one is not in a romantic relationship. there are so many causes to undertake that are far bigger than we are, so much history to consider of our world, that i'm baffled we could get so caught up in the people we give our affection to. i finally finished The Poisonwood Bible tonight at jeff's before we went out to the knickerbocker and currently i'm looking at my surroundings through the lens of the narrator. terrific. horrible. maddening. and people wonder why i love books? i wonder how they could not. you get to climb into an entire new world, you're in someone else's creation and in their head. you set up shop and tour the landscape that they create with the words on the pages. you leave your reality behind to experience life through someone else's eyes, then you come back to your own with some new things to think about.

"and all i can do is read a book to stay awake
and every day it rips a little of my life away but its a great escape." -blind melon

i forget too often how incredible the people i've met are. jeff has a great concern for my mental well-being and does wonders in making me stay up late to figure out how to make my life better. randy brings the comfort only an old friend can, one who's known me through girlfriends, locked out of dorm-room episodes, and plenty of birthday cakes. kristy i wish i had spent much more time with. she brings out the silly in me, which gets punished by the stronger cynic in me. we have many differences, but i never fail to laugh deep and long and smile wide when i'm around her. her deep satisfaction with her family and her own life rub off on me. these people are home to me, not this place, and person by person they are becoming scattered across the globe. cheryl's been in bolivia a year, kristy to japan for 1-3plus years, alicia to various states, christoph to pittsburg, denise, who gave me more companionship than i bet she knows, to burbank, dan to gary, where the land knows him and where he belongs to the land. i get reaffirmed by these people. the recharge me, renew me, and unbeknownst to them, give me hope. one should be so fortunate to have a life with such faithful and committed companions.