And so shall it be

Okay, I will seriously get to posting about my trip home, complete with pictures, this weekend. I will also continue to play the “I was busy with work” card to justify my laziness because honestly, it’s the only card I have.

I will also follow that up with another post, once again complete with pictures, of Matt’s recent trip to Seoul.

What I will follow up with beyond that is actually the subject of this post.

Not to get into any further detail about the trip home because as I stated earlier, that will receive its own post, but while I was there I stumbled upon a portable external hard drive that I used to use to store things from my laptop back in ’03. I also found my old picture CDs from my trip to Japan. After bringing all that back with me and loading all the pictures, videos and whatnot onto my current desktop at home, I started to take the all too cliché trip down memory lane.

I have a juxtaposition of the last six years of my life in picture format to pore over and sort this weekend and I have to admit I’m kind of psyched about it.

Instead of just dumping all of that content into one, gigamegamongous post that would surely take weeks to create, I’ve decided that in the coming month (read: months) I will create several posts chronicling my journey over the past six years. I’ll start from the beginning, my trip to Japan, and post random pictures and try to dreg my mind for the remaining bits of memories that are still present.

As Matt said while he was here, that year in Japan changed a lot of people’s lives. After thinking about it, I would have to proudly include myself in that group. Who knows what my life would be like currently if I hadn’t taken that turn in the road. I guess the coming posts will help me remember myself as I was and also allow me to reflect on how things have changed.

I’m looking forward to it.

(Of course the recent home trip post comes first though…)

Ruminations

I was originally going to save my next blog entry for after my triumphant return to Korea but decided to drop a quick update before I left anyways. I will save details for my next post upon returning to Korea, but here is a quick summary:

This has been my 4th return to America since I started living abroad. One could say that all of my friends and family have become relatively acclimated to my yearly trips home and these trips seem to have become holidays in their own right. Not to say my ego isn't large enough to believe (falsely) that I should have my own holiday, but it seems my friends and family only come together while I am visiting. That was also the case this year.

I had a couple of large family gatherings complete with incredible home cooked meals and also a few liquor-soaked evenings out with my good friends. I met a few good people I haven't seen in years and I got a rush of various, vivid emotions while going through all of my old boxes that contain bits of my past. I have a lot of stories, a lot of pictures (I'll post them next time) and a lot of memories to remind me of my latest trip back home. Coming back here reminds me why I miss it but it also reminds me why I have to leave again...

There are still things I need to accomplish and a couple of things I haven't given up on yet.

Let's see where this next year takes me.

Until next time Chicago, when your earth bares my travel weary feet yet again.

Sweet Home Chicago Revisited

The last time I wrote about visiting home was when I first started this blog over a year ago.

A lot has changed since then but due to the brevity of this post, I will write about that in another entry.

Even though this trip home will only be about half as long as my last visit, I plan on making up for that by making sure everything I do has a purpose, is well thought out, and is meticulously executed. Either that or I’ll just do what I always do and wing it. No matter what happens though, I know I’ll have fun.

Lots of activities are planned and for the sake of me having a way to remember them, I shall list them here:

- Hang out with the Moms and Pops
- Visit Grandma in the hospital
- Have an early Thanksgiving dinner with the family and catch up with all of them
- Go to a Brazilian restaurant with my best friends and probably end the night laying around in a vat of our combined bile
- Hang around with sis
- Screw up my brothers room and mess with his stuff so he knows how I’ve felt for the last decade
- Go clothes/gift shopping
- Get my suits refitted (I’ve lost over 20 pounds since I bought them)
- Eat all of my favorite foods
- Make sure I’m running at least a few days a week because of the above reason
- Visit with my old boss and co-workers
- Try to meet as many friends as possible
- Play with the dogs
- See if Buddy Guy’s Legends is still around, and if so, go there
- A veritable cornucopia of other things

So that is my rough list of things to do. All of a sudden 12 days doesn’t seem like much anymore but I’ll do my best to get it all done and make sure I need a vacation from this vacation.

Until then, it’s all about the excitement of traveling back to my hometown.

I’ll see you soon Chicago. Hope you’ve missed me as much as I’ve missed you.

Now I got a plane to catch...