Gas prices

Hey Gas prices suck! It's 20cts cheaper in the midwest.

Home Again

Well if you haven't figured out yet I drove home from Iowa stopping to sleep in Detroit. Looking back I think it might have been cool to hang out in Granelle for a couple days, spending time in that coffee shop maybe befriend some of those liberal arts students. Hotel rooms are expensive however so perhaps not. For my next adventure I would like to get a room in some strange city, a foreign city if I'm really adventurous, and just read and write. I wonder if Verizon would ever let me take a month off to live in Paris. That would be neat.

The thing is all lot of people can go to other cities and meet people easily but as for me I tend to give off this vibe that says "I want you" or "I hate you." In truth it's more like "You bother me" or "You are kind of cool let's be friends" and in rare occasion "The knowledge that you exist is a burden to my soul." The Holy Spirit is helping with that last one. So I am going to try to be nicer to people anyhow but as for the flip side, I would never date someone unless I really knew them well. I don't know.

So I also want to send a shout out for PJ who is my first commenter to the blog. I notice most people here don't get comments as much as was on xanga. Xanga was going pretty good for quite a while. I've got a couple years worth of posts still up there but nobody I was buddied with posts anymore. Theoretically I can do more here but I forget how that HTML stuff works so I can't fix my margins.

As for future posts I'll try and keep things interesting in a non emo fashion. I am sure there will be plenty of girls who think that I want them so I can blog about that in subtle artistic forms that will make everyone involved feel awkward. Or maybe it would be better not to take things in that direction. Spiritual preachy blogs tend to do well but the ones that really get the comments are the ones that say stupid stuff like "boot cut jeanz are the ROXOR" or "vote for Pedro." Just watch I'll post something like that and people will react and by now everyone has stopped reading. I think a lot of people skip the ends of long blogs. Although I seriously wonder if people even read the beginning. We shall see.

Templates urk me

OK these pictures are being displayed poorly. If anyone is more tech savvy than me how do I fix this. If anyone is less tech savvy than me right click the picture and click on display picture.

Pictures finally

Above are some pictures of crossing the Mississippi via the route 66 bridge.
Below are some pictures of my sister's place in Detroit, MI (Rochester hills actually)

tripping or illing

Man I've been on the road for a while now and I've made it to Grinnell, IO. It's a small college town with a coffee shop called the saint's rest in which I happen to be sitting. Last night I stayed in a town by the Mississippi river so that I could go take a walk by it's banks in the morning. It's big and cold I imagined Jim and Huck riding by on a raft. I also went on the rout 66 bridge and I thought of Hemingway and Kerouac. It is kind of neat to see these things but really most of the neatness is in my head. Sure it's a lot of dirty water, I've seen that before but what the Mississippi means culturally can't really be understood by looking at it. Should I press on in the hope of seeing mountains or should I stop and go home.
As I travel around I see people everywhere living in cities and towns I've never heard of or cared about living their lives. Does it really matter where a person puts down their roots just so long as they do put down roots. They do look just as happy as any other people anywhere else. Is that what I need to see out here.
My vague plan is to go to California I guess because that's really as far as a person can go without having to change directions. Being here in this shop doesn't feel much different than Webster or Java's downtown. Is it worth a couple of days and a couple hundred dollars to see mountains. I'll let you know in my next post.
Also closing remark I've gotten some hits on my hit counter and that's pretty sweet but please won't someone leave a comment. It would mean the world to me :)

pictures

BTW stay tuned peeps pics are coming soon.

LaSalle, IL

Well I'm in LaSalle, IL with a vague plan of making my way down highway 80. I got a flat in Jouliet outside Chicago but I am undeterred. The land is starting to flatten out now as I make my way accross the plains I hope to cross the Mississippi tonight but I may be detoured. The philosophy of this trip is not about speed. Speed is my own personal philosophy so now I'm trying to act contrary to my nature to challenge that in me.
The word came up today on the radio (NPR) Mensch. It's a Yiddish word meaning an exceptional person of character. Will I ever be called this or deserve this title. Sure it's easy to pretend to be excellent for and hour or so every week sometimes longer but to be really deserving of such a title. What do you think.

I've also been thinking a lot about faith. Weeks ago I would have told you I'm all out of faith. Nearly ready to stop believing. Not really that close though. I think the bottom of my faith barrel is a lot deeper than I realize. Someone said to me that the course of my life is not about a journey to a destination but the development of character. My life looks like aimless wandering but that's what it's taken to bring me to there point of being who I am and who I will be. So then I ask myself a I better now than I was and the answer is in some ways no. But, I have to admit there is more that I don't see. How can a car in the garage say it's worse off when it is in pieces. Trust in God that what is happening will bring you to the greater good then you will be a person of faith.

And then what happened

So I finally knuckled down and got a job. What's next you are probably asking. Well my Shema friends all are going to suggest moving out and I'll jive with that. In about 6 months I will probably be moving out into my own apartment. I don't know if I will share or if I will live alone yet, this depends on a number of factors. It's all a part of growing up I guess, It's not an easy road but one I know I must go down. That's why I have to make as much of these road trips as I possibly can. Everyone I know is settling down, getting married but I don't know that I want to take that rout, at least not yet. I see so many married people who mutually defer their own dreams for the sake of their spouses and I just am not interested in that right now. I would feel horrible if I made someone turn down their dream. It's been a long time since I have gone after a girl or asked out a girl (on purpose anyway.) I feel ready to move out but relationship wise not so much. Right now I'm all about the friendships.

Yeah I know this entry is not my best most organized writing but I just want to throw it out there at the web and see what sticks.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

A while ago I told you all about the 2 vexing problems in my life... consider them solved. Yeah it's pretty sweet I have my degree and a sweet job at Verizon. The catch is that the Verizon job starts at the end of the month. So I quit my job at office depot because it is painful to me and I have my tax money so what do I do with my month off? Road trip of course. Where? who cares so long as it is some place I've never been and might not get to go. Right now I am in Michigan outside Detroit and I will try to give updates as I travel when I stop for the night. I will be here for a few days and then on Wednesday I will move on. I am not sure if I want to go see the Aurora by driving north or if I want to see the Pacific as well as the rocky mountains. Let me know what you guys think. Or if you want to let me stay with you.

Oh btw I think I am talking to myself because I put a hit counter up and I'm pretty sure those 4 hits are all from me.