“What have you learned, Dorothy? ”
“Well, I think that it wasn’t enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em, and it’s that - if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.
Kvothe and I are twinsies!! ;) I got this in the mail from Philip and couldn’t believe my eyes! So cool!!
I have a backlog of blog postings in my personal queue right now but I feel like this one can’t wait. (as an aside, I shall give a shout out to Phillip Green, the man who traveled 800 miles to chicago to be a friend on an adventure, and who pesters me enough to make me feel like people still care that I haven’t blogged in a while. thank you.)
What you need to know before reading this post, is that since february 28th- I haven’t eaten meat. And I don’t intend to eat it again until April 8th.
So. I’m back! But not really. Ha.
SOME people have been especially naggy about me posting another blog, and honestly with all that med school entails there’s a likelihood that my brief blogging career is already dead and in the grave. However, with all the holiday breaks and such I felt rather obligated to make good use of my airplane travel time. The question was: what to blog about? I have like 18 Dear Abbie questions sitting in my inbox- but at this point I can’t seem to choose one over the other. Instead I’ll try to provide you with some of my more memorable moments over the past few months since I’ve left the beautiful state of Georgia.
… At least if you’re not from Chicago, that is.
These are all of the things I learned or discovered in the past two days about my new home town. Don’t ask how I discovered some of these things, they just came up in conversation one way or another- or I personally experienced them. Please keep in mind that if I go into detail about something you have known about all your life- it means that I either never knew about them until today, or I had never actually seen something until today. There is a first time for everything. No judgements on the Southerner please.
So its been day one of my grand adventure into the land of Chicago. For the record, I am not really living in Chicago at all. I’m living in North Chicago, which is a completely separate entity about 45 minutes… north of Chicago. Amazing.
Anyway, today was move in day. As I already mentioned on facebook, but can’t ever really emphasize enough… I really REALLY missed all my friends today. And yes, I am that shallow friend who missed all her strong guy friends because they would have cut my 3 hour move-in into a 45 minute one (and they would have set up my internet! More on that to come). But really. Honestly. I just missed their presence. Its not the fact that I know people who like to move heavy boxes. Its that I know people who are willing to move them for me. It’s a two way street too. I missed being wanted. No one called me during the middle of the day to say they needed help with something. I didn’t get to go meet other people’s parents or help decorate someone’s room. As weird as it is, I didn’t dislike moving into this apartment because it was hot and sweaty and a pain to do. I disliked it because I felt lonely.
For the first time ever during a move in, there was no one in my life (or rather in the nearest 200 miles) who knew me and liked me enough to want to come help me move things from a truck into a room. With the obvious exception of my parents. Why was that so important to me? I have no idea. But it was saddening. It made me realize how much I was going to feel my lack of community over the next few weeks. Because the truth is that I will miss them desperately. Not all at once, because for now my wonderful former roommates have been faithful about texting or calling me to check in on me. And others have asked me how I am. So for now the loneliness is just an itch you can’t scratch. I just went through my normal move-in routine with the knowledge that something just wasn’t quite right. And sometimes I worry that the loneliness will set into my bones. That it will dive down deeper to where I can’t itch or scratch. And that it will settle on me like a numbing flu-like ache.
But enough about that. There will be plenty of time for sappy lonely blogs. On to the main event: chaos.
So I’ve taken the summer off from blogging, as you’ve probably noticed. But I plan to restart in the fall. Especially since there will probably be hilarious iceberg and blizzard stories by October. To the truly hardcore fans (or really anyone) you could start off my semester with a Dear Abbie letter… to my new address! Or just a regular letter telling me how much you miss me, that works too ;)
3402B University Circle
North Chicago, IL 60064
Dear Abbie,
If a person knows (or is fairly certain to a degree large enough) that he/she will not end up dating a certain person (of the opposite sex (just to clarify)), is it a bad idea to still go on a date or more than one with that person? We will assume that the other person also knows to at least a similar degree of certainty that he/she will not end up dating the the other person as well.
In simpler terms: is it bad to go on a date(s) with someone when you know you won’t end up dating them? what about if the other person knows that too?
Sincerely… I don’t want to break break [your] heart
Dear HeartBreaker,
I’d say you’re a Dream Maker. But a Love Taker. And I’d ask that you don’t mess around with me. For the record, I asked around what other people might think about this particular scenario. And the first nine people I asked agreed with me. They were like “whaaa? why would you ever go on a date with someone you can’t see yourself dating?” And I agree. I’m that person that says no to the first date if I can’t already see myself on the second date. But the tenth person I asked about this scenario surprised me. When I first read this question. I thought I knew the right answer off the top of my head. But that tenth person forced me into a second look at what I had been sure of. Below are my complete thoughts on the matter, Heart Breaker. I hope your name is anything but self fulfilling.
Dear Abbie,
Peeta and Katniss were meant for each other and are perfect. I am wholly aware this is not a question. But I know you’ll have something to say about it. here’s a real question though: what are some good (I mean you really really enjoyed them) books you’ve read lately?
sincerely,
Jane Err
Dear Jane Err,
Congrats on having the most awesome code name of all time. I’m well aware that this reply is late in coming- but you had the unfortunate luck of submitting your question right after the other one about books- so you’ve taken a back slot for a while. I feel like I now have put enough space in between the last book post and now for this to be more entertaining- but I still will refer you to the first one as to a listing of my favorite books.