Changes

Today, at 2:11am, I am the most excited I have ever been about my trip.

I'm making some huge changes for better or for worse, but I like them. I'm cutting down. I'll be spending only 3 months in Europe and probably one month in South America.

Reasons for this decision are varied, but it really comes down to two things: weddings and cost. I will not miss my best friend's wedding for the world, so I'm leaving in July and coming back in October to play best man! And travelling the other continents is expensive. The real cost comes from getting place to place. It's outrageously costly because not every place has railways and awesome transportation systems like Europe.

However, since I'm cutting back, I'll have a lot more money to spend on some things. Cody and I were sitting at the Classic Bean tonight when it occurred to me that there is no reason for me to pay off all of my student loans. I'm just going to prepay payments through January, and keep the rest of the money for my travels. It will save me about $2500, which will be used for the coolest thing ever: a Eurail Pass. With the extra money, I can afford to buy a 3 month pass which will get me at will train tickets to nearly every country and city I want to visit. AND a ferry from the UK to Amsterdam, which is exactly what I wanted to do. HOW FREAKING AWESOME IS THAT!? I just got insanely lucky.

I'll be travelling super fast, which is great because I'll be able to see more. I'll also get road worn more quickly, so I'll be prepared to come back by October. At that point, I'll take a couple months to work, then head to South America for a month. Followed by re-enrollment at my beloved K-State in January. My time spent abroad will be much shorter than anticipated, but I've got my whole live to travel.

Plus, when I get back I can do some of the other things I've wanted to do. The first month of summer 2011, I'm going to take a month long US road trip. I think I'll be able to do it cheaper than I'll be able to travel around Europe. When I arrive in Manhattan in January, I'm going to set about opening a Hookah shop in town. It will be my first attempt at entrepreneurship. I may fail miserably, but personally I think there's a real fat chance of that. A college town is the perfect place to start a business like that and I think it would be a blast.

Anyways, I'm too exhausted to really be blogging, I just can't sleep because I'm simply giddy about all these things. Even though I'm going to be traveling a lot less time than I'd hoped, my life is great.

P.S. I've put together a list of the things (not all inclusive, and with a few extra things) that I'll be taking on my trip with me. It's not a lot, but it IS all that I need to survive. I'm really pumped about the actions I'm taking to be able to live simply. I hope that, when I return to the states, I will be able to continue the lifestyle.

What a Week...

It's Friday. Finally. The last week has been an incredible roller coaster. Let me give you a quick recap of what went down.

Last Thursday. Off work early. Power surge on electrical grid blows up my Marantz power amp at 4:30pm. $1200 to properly replace it.

Friday. Went to Lawrence with Nathan. Hung out at Ayrick's place.

Saturday. Went to Lawrence. Left for a free Ok Go concert at the AMC Midland with Nathan, Ayrick and a couple others. Didn't get in, place was full to capacity. Came back to Lawrence and went home because I couldn't get into any bars. (Fuck the alcohol laws in America. This is becoming a real issue that I hope will be changed soon, even after I turn 21.)

Sunday. Friend of the family passes away.

Monday. 4:45 am. Dad wakes me up to tell me my neighbor Ed has passed away. He's the only person who's ever filled the role of a grandfather in my life.

Tuesday. Went to Hooters with Cody. Won Tuesday Trivia and 100 free wings. Beat out 8 teams, and I won the cracker eating tie breaker for us!

Wednesday. Received my Stoic eVent shell in the mail. Awesome.

Thursday. Went to Ed's funeral. Received my Patagonia R1 [Edit: turns out the jacket I have is actually an R3 Radiant. MUCH MORE BADASS!] in the mail. Went to Legends to see The Wolfman under the impression that Cody and I could get into VIP seating. Turns out the girl on the phone was wrong.

Which brings me to today. Got off work at 1:30pm. Slept all afternoon. Going to Manhattan tomorrow to watch DJ and Meriel in a track meet. Should be good.

Crazy, huh?

Hilarity Ensues: On Facebook and Business Cards

So! Tonight I had one of the funniest things happen to me in some time. I JUST GOT STRAIGHT UP DEFRIENDED! Yes, on the Facebook. Wow!

I'm not going to be an asshole and use names because, in all honesty, I have no anger, am not distraught, and am still all giggly (yes giggly) about this. So for the story, we'll call my defriender (that almost sounds cool) "Defriender" and the other person will be..... "Shaniqua." That sounds good. Here's the story:

Defriender had commented on a status of mine. Shaniqua recognized the name and said hi to me. To cut to the chase, Shaniqua is a hater of Defriender. Now, I couldn't really care less. Defriender and I are still on good terms as far as I'm concerned. But I found the fact funny and interesting, so I proceeded to have the following conversation with Defriender....

Me: guess what! turns out a friend of mine is a hater of yours!

Defriender: WHO

Me: really?

Me: that could get me into trouble.

Defriender: WHO

Defriender: .........

Me: no seriously. that will get me into trouble

Defriender: k bye

Defender then proceeded to disconnect, and defriend me. Now, I don't know about anybody else, but I think that was simultaneously awesome, hilarious and unfortunate all at the same time. And I really don't give a shit. :D Some days I love being me!

On a lighter note, I'm designing a business card. This is iteration 5, finalized with the help of Cody. I think it turned out really well; for sure a lot better than I was expecting with the rough draft. It's the first thing you see in this post. The symbol in the middle is my monogram. It took me half of a freakin' hour on my mom's Wacom tablet to get it just so. (Those last two sentences were the third edit to this. I should really proofread more.) Cody and I had to brainstorm a bit to come up with my title of "world traveller." I couldn't find anything fitting because "adventurer" didn't really work in practice and "consent engineer" just isn't something I want to explain to a stranger. The design was originally going to go on 2.5" round cards, but those are stupidly expensive. Instead, its going to be centered on a standard rectangular card (also Cody's idea, I quote "I like white space!") and I'm going to put some cool black and white photo of myself on the back.

Wow. Now that I proofread that, turns out Cody helped a lot when my own ideas crashed and burned. Thank you, Cody!

Finally, I bought my first piece of gear tonight. A Patagonia R2. Mine's pretty and red! I still have several more things to get, but I'm stoked about this. It's really begun.

And I should be getting my passport renewed on Friday. WOOHOO!!!!!

peace.love.forever