"Watch the steps. Get a drink, have a good time now. Welcome to Paradise.."

merry Christmas everyone.

"So, what's new with you?"

It's December 18th and the Boston Celtics have lost at home again. Central Pennsylvania braces for the first blizzard of the year, but the snow hasn't started to fall yet.

It's been a little over eight months since I blogged, and it's not for lack of subjects to write about. The biggest challenge is, of course, the same challenge that people face at the family get togethers we are all headed for this next week. That daunting task is how to answer the question, "what's new?" After a such a long time, there is in fact too much that is new, and so the response is typically along the lines of, "Oh, you know, nothing too much really. School's going well [or work, and even if it isn't going well]. How are you?"

Now, there's no real way to avoid this kind of conversation. After about a month of not blogging, I found that I was facing that same problem. And now, finally, I'm ready to knock it out. This might be a long post folks, and probably not that fun, but it'll mean that I can feel like I can reopen dialog here soon, so humor me.

Dean got a blood clot from laying out too much to make insane plays while trying to will our college ultimate team to the Metro East Regional tournament. I fractured my right ankle while trying to defend an in cut at the same tournament. Less heroic, but a fantastic memory, especially when we came back in the last game of the season against Gettysburg. Down 11-8, we ran off seven points in a row to win, with Dean scoring the last point.

My depression and I sputtered on another semester of college. Watching my friends graduate, people who I will never forget walking into the soccer stadium, was too hard. I left ten minutes into the ceremony and went to Baltimore. It was hard to explain why, but it was one of the hardest moments of my life and will stay that way until I have a cap and gown of my own.

My love life continued to make my head spin. Still have no idea what's happening, and I wish I could tell you more.

Liz Carroll and Dean Eastlake, two of my oldest friends, got married. To each other even. It was the most I have smiled in one day in ages, just the perfect day.

My friend Skunk and I built a club co-ed ultimate team with perhaps the best uniforms of this or any other generation. I wish I could just show about 80 pictures of this team and their antics, but frankly there are too many to pick. Just know that it's the most fun I've had playing ultimate, which is the thing I have the most fun doing. That's so much fun. Also, we were damn good.

Pete Corning covered Kanye West at a Messiah College coffeehouse. In a mustache.

I worked at Red Robin. I quit Red Robin. I captained Messiah's ultimate team. I made the semis in both my fantasy football league (still in so far!), and got another temp. job with UPS.

I promise to update this blog more now that I've caught everyone up on everything, happy and sad. I also promise to write more un-rhyming, way-too-personal poetry for you all to chew on.

It's now December 19th, and the snow has started falling. I miss you all, and I mean it. This blog is back to life.

Merry Christmas, friends.

Perfection

There is nothing better than a cold beer on Opening Day, and being in love.

"I hate Winnipeg"

It just occurred to me that this is my first entry in months. I meant to blog a lot, honest I did. Right around Christmas I had something deep and wondrous to write about, about the faces in my church's old sanctuary, and about how another forced candle-lit service was suddenly special to me, a Christmas miracle in my heart.

I was going to write about how I missed Towson, that place I hated so much. I was going to write about how the ultimate team is doing, how great the guys are, how perfect it is to play my favorite sport day in and day out with some ofmy favorite people. There's a lot new in the family to write about too. Both Nelly and Daniel are at Messiah now with me. I can't think of
anything better than having my siblings so close.

I planned on reflecting on the New Year, and the New Year's party, and new friends, some new stories.

But I've been restless. Mike and Sarah got me a book for Christmas, an illustrated book from Starbucks, where they work. It is about a boy named Charlie. He has everything, but something's not quite right. So he packs up all of his time into a suitcase and travels the world. He sees the world, learns new things, changes his life. But he can never find something that he wants to spend his time on. At the end of the book, he opens up his suitcase.. all of his time is gone.

I need to focus. I need to move away from the literary Charlies (Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Traveler) and start to live.

How come that is so much easier said than done?