He's BA-ack! I apologize for my extended absence. The whole moving/new job thing got in the way of Diaryland, as did my prolonged war with those charlatans who pose as cable-modem repair people. The good news is that I'm up and running now and hopefully there will be many entries to come.

So what's new? Here I sit, in Minneapolis, in my own apartment, preparing to go to work tomorrow. Exactly where I was DYING to be just a few weeks ago. I am sooooooo happy to be here now, seriously. I think I would have gone Anne Heche if I had been forced to sit in that empty house in the dull countryside for one more Friday night. I began to feel like I was either seven years old or seventy years old... I didn't do ANYthing!!!

Although my social life now isn't exactly breathtaking, it is nice to know that it could be if I wanted it to. I have been adjusting to working life again, after a few months of sloth and idleness. Waking up at 7 AM, going to bed around 11:30... This is the schedule that I need to keep for right now, until my body and mind have made the adjustment.

The LAST thing I want, however, is to become a working drone. I am a little terrified of the idea that my life could consist of work and TV, work and TV. That's sort of what it is right now, but, like I said, I need that while I'm slipping into this new lifestyle. I have already started looking into activities to fulfill my life a bit more. Writing classes. Volunteer opportunities. Maybe even a part-time night job, like ushering at a theater or something similar that would have some benefit beyond the monetary one.

I think that one's first year of independence from school is one of the most telling of them all. The year after graduation, whether from high school or higher education, one is finally given something that he probably didn't have before... evenings and weekends. I have NO idea what to do with myself when I get home from work right now because my life in college was school, homework, sleep. The concept of having FREE time (!), in which one can do anything he wants (!!!), without feeling guilty about shirking one's duties (!!!!!!!!!!!!), and actually pursue one's own interests (HOLY SHIT!), is SO foreign to me. This is the time that one can decide whether he will spend the rest of his life working and watching TV, or if he actually wants to DO something with his life.

Julie raised a good point when we discussed this last night. She thinks that I am acting like a lump of jelly when I get home from work because I am subconsciously telling myself that this leisure time will soon come to an end and school will be starting up again. That is how things normally are for a college student: he gets a month or two off before heading back to school, so he wants to enjoy and relax as much as he can. I think I am in this mindset right now, like it or not. It will probably take me a few weeks or even months for me to realize that no: This is life. My life up until now was charted out for me. Elementary and high school were givens. College was assumed. But now?

Now is when I get to point my old battlehorse of a life in whatever direction I choose and start galloping. I can veer to the left or right when it seems appropriate, but I have to keep moving. As long as I'm not a couch jockey, I think I'll be happy.