cup o joe

before vienna, the idea of coffee and cafes was nothing more than another episode of friends to me. now it means a quiet place to catch up on work emails, place to read and listen to classical music, surf the web, or just people watch. in fort myers, i have slowly begun to spot more and more cafes as i branch out to the local surroundings. my two main hubs are borders at gulf coast town center (lame but close to work, cheap, and the baristas are very friendly) and blackhawk coffee at bell tower shops. i have routinely spotted more in downtown fort myers that i would like to check out

can i really call this a job?

with the holiday season quickly coming to a halt and the majority of people reentering the daily grind, failing at their resolutions, and counting down the weeks until they recover from the holiday spending, the only thing i can find to complain about is i live on a air mattress. even with that being said, i upgraded from couch cushions so there is nothing in my life to complain about. i have a roof with minimal rent, plenty of food to eat, and a job that hardly constitutes as work. i am blessed, maybe not in the bank account, but in the fact that i am able to do things i look forward to everyday...

graduate school- the next step in my educational frontier

there seems to be a natural order of things when you think about education. many of us start out with our parents placing us in pre-school. at this point in our lives we usually think of it as the mecca of play dates, upwards of twenty children our age all with the same list of worries in life; will i get to play with the giant blocks, when will i ever be coordinated enough to cut circles instead of continually cutting the corners in hopes that eventually it will be somewhat round, and will my mom make a pb and j again for lunch while i watch sesame street at home.
next we may head into a second year of preschool (which in my case ended up to be mrs. walkers class) or suddenly find ourselves diving head first into kindergarten. still relatively minor, but i remember the daunting task of

breaking in the new year

i think it is only cliche as someone who does this whole blog thing to take a minute and talk about breaking in the new year. 2009 started with a plan, something concrete and exact, a mix of certainties and undiscovered possibilities that stood within reach of a wide-eyed 22 year old soon to be college graduated who had his life set to the "t". i have always thought of myself to some extent as someone who had it figured out, had a plan, a road map for my life. i was going to graduate college or get a job, get married, have kids, grow old and somewhere during that lose sight of my childhood

cincinnati-there and back

i just returned to fort myers after a 2 week trip back home to cincinnati. as some know i skipped my last scheduled trip home during thanksgiving for the dominican republic so this was a much anticipated return. i was in need of cold, snow, and sweaters to tie me over for the next four months. my roommates took off a week earlier than i did leaving me alone in an apartment with no internet or cable tv...not as bad as it sounds but i know for a fact that the walls were inching closer and closer leading up to the friday departure. i landed on the 18th in columbus to be greeted by my parents