soon to come

today i set out to be creative, to do something that i have been meaning to get to for about ten months, to develop my right brain a bit more... i am working on a video of my study abroad trip from last year...a collection of my favorite pictures to the only piece of music that can sum up the true identity of vienna and europe. that is right, i am showing an artistic side, one that i wish i could say i have always had but never unleashed.

stay tuned, because it is coming.

a calling adventure?

a map for saturday, this is where i always seem to find myself time and time again. how could this not be enticing? how could this not eat away at you? how can you begin to think about ten, twenty, seventy years down the road without doing something that calls your name like a mother at dinner time? whenever i watch the trailer my mind goes off into some distant place where i am able to find a sort of peace. strange to think about i know, but even now i migrate towards non-fictional books of adventures like, "eat, pray, love," "the innocence abroad," "a walk in the woods," and the list slowly grows in

a viewpoint

in the wake of a less than fantastic day, a day that should leave me with a harsh acceptance of reality, a day that should stop and make me think, a day that could leave me exhausted over the next three months, will only leave me with a great test of patience and perseverance. i have made my mind up about this, it will not hinder or cause me distress. i will turn it into great possibilities to grow, to plan, to learn, and to overcome. there is a quote i remember from eighth grade, behind every cloud waits a sun...never more appropriate

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

fyi my fellow cincinnatians

for anyone who is from cincinnati and understands how great the city is, i found this blog i think you should check out and pass on to others for them to enjoy. in the few minutes that i was searching around, i came across many insights to my wonderful city, all accompanied by a photo of the day. its called cincinnati daily photo and worth taking a look at and seeing for yourself.

it also sends a shout out to milford, who knew others have heard of it as well

christmas, does it really exist here?

i have come to find from living in southwest florida that christmas does not exist in this part of the world. it is all fake down here, no real christmas decorations, no merry singing, no overcast skies with blistering winds, and no snow. how the hell can a parent live with themselves while providing a child a "christmas" without the winter wonderland? being from ohio, having a white christmas may not have been a guarantee, but at least it was always a great possibility. i remember being young and running down to stairs to see what santa brought me only to be momentarily side tracked by the fresh powder, marked only by what i thought were reindeer tracks, that could be seen through the front door windows. not only that, i was in pajamas-meaning flannel pants and soon to be a sweatshirt because it was winter in