hmm. well.. don't know what just happened, but blogger just ate my post. where was i?

i guess i'll start with a recap of the last three weeks, since adam likes to bitch about how the blog is never updated.

so. it started on 5 december when i got up way too damned early and loaded my stuff in
the van for a 3-week vacation (unpaid, of course. which sucks.) the hour drive to rapid city listening to morning edition, transferring my bags to a friend's truck for the 15-min drive to the airport, where i basically walked right on to the plane and left for minneapolis.

the last time i was in minneapolis, i had a girlfriend. i was planning on moving there. it was kind of a surreal experience to be back there again. so what do i do? break out the cell phone and call the ex. [outworldly sign #1: she doesn't recognize my voice] a five-minute very awkward phone conversation follows. first time i've heard her voice since june. after listening to way too much ben lee, i was believing the line "if i could hear your voice just one more time, maybe i'd be fine..." well. it didn't work. oh well.

left msp for cleveland. HELLO CLEVELAND! a boring stay in a boring airport. not too long tho. then it was off to the big city. NYC. first time i'd been there since the 95/96 new years [which, incidentally, was the worst nyc experience i've ever had.] had dilusions of grandeur that i'd hang out with friends who live in the city. put my bags in storage at the airport (wasn't leaving 'till 11am the following day) and headed into the city. wandered in the cold looking at girls. ate good food. called the friends, none of who would answer the cell phones. avoiding me? ran into an old friend from indy at michael and zoe's and hung out with him and his roomates for a while, then wandered around some more, and headed back to the airport for some sleep at about 1am.

the next day- it was off to puerto rico for two weeks. met up with the rest of the crew at the airport in san juan, and headed off to a friend's house for some food and good times. the next day, we went to the grocery to provision for a 10-day expedition to a deserted island 50 miles off the west coast of puerto rico: isla de mona. this was a smaller expedition than last summers, but it was still fun. shopping for 10 people for 10 days is a fun experience. imagine pulling your cart into an aisle and loading up with 25 cans of easy cheese, 30 cans of fruit, etc etc. when it's all over, you've got 10 carts completely full of food lined up at the checkout. it takes literally 30-40 minutes to run all the stuff through the checkout. crazy. then we drove across the island to boqueron, where we would leave between 4 and 5 the next morning for the 3-hour boat ride to isla de mona.

10 days on an island where you have to bring EVERYTHING you need, including water, is an amazing experience. the fact that i spent 7 of 10 nights sleeping in a hammock on the beach in mid-december is also an amazing thought [three nights were in my tent 'cause it got a bit windy and chilly...].

unfortunately, about 3 days into our 10-day stay on mona, a couple of people in the group began to talk a lot about the ex. turns out that they'd done quite a bit of caving with her in mexico. i'm not sure if they knew we used to date. probably not. lots of people know her. lots of people know me. but those lots of aforementioned people don't often know each other. anyway... i was looking forward to the camaraderie of the trip to afford me some contact with outside life so i wouldn't have lots of time to dwell on what's happened in my life blah blah blah - to forget about the girl. of course with all the talk about her, that made it a bit difficult. i did, however, figure out that i think i've been dumped for a guy in his late 40s. what's up with that. i'm not sure, as i never heard the name of the new guy she's dating, but from what i did get, it's looking like it's him. she claimed that it wasn't because of anyone or anything else. the way she felt about our relationship "just changed" whatever. easy way out. oh well.

after 10 days of amazing caving on mona, we were back to the puerto rican mainland. me for just 2 more days. one of which was spent rounding up rental vehicles, and travelling back to the friend's house in san juan, and the next caving near the village of aguas buenas. the 3rd morning, i was back to nyc for a day on my way to indianapolis.

to make a long story short, i was supposed to leave san juan at 3pm. arriving in nyc at 6pm. we left san juan at 10:30, got in nyc at 12:45. i had acutally talked to people in the city, and was planning on hanging out, but not getting in until basically 1am made that unlikely. so - i spent another night at jfk. overslept
(the three hours i slept...) and missed the time slot to get out to the subway
station to take the 5 trains and one bus to get to la guardia to catch my flight
to indiana. ended up having to spend $20 on a cab.

made it home relatively uneventfully, and no one was at the airport to pick me up. turns out my parents just decided that i didn't make my flight. they had no reason to think that, but that's their excuse. maybe they just forgot.

so.. that's pretty much the first two weeks in a quick review. i'll update the last week later today. more coffee is in order!