Last night I dreamt I was visiting Vilnius, Lithuania. In that dream my now-girlfriend and I were visiting her Jewish grandparents, who lived in a small, run-down house in the center of Vilnius. (None of that is true in real life...she doesn't actually have grandparents there but part of her family is Jewish, and Vilnius did once have a large Jewish community). 

After meeting her grandmother we walked down the road and looked for my old apartment. We didn't find it (and, geographically, we were in the wrong spot) but we did find some sort of Soviet-era pumping station. Not sure if it was pumping water or gas or something else but it was inside an old factory with large windows. Eventually we figured out people were allowed to look inside--in fact, it was a bit of a tourist attraction. (Let's go visit the pumping station, everyone!) Not much to see though unless you're into hydraulics and heavy equipment.

This brief dream visit to Vilnius did, however, kick off a bout of nostalgia, from which I'm still recovering. Vilnius, Tallinn, Freiburg, Hamburg...I miss all those places.

Hello, old blog-friend. It's been a while. Almost 7 years, in fact. I've been toying with the idea of writing a blog again and, thanks to the circuitous route that is my brain, I ended up back here, at my old blog. I started it when blogs were actually new things and I had no real idea of what I was doing with it. Now blogs are...like...old. And I still have no real idea of what I am doing with it.

But I've been feeling the urge to write just the same. Life's a lot less exciting in some ways compared to when I was living in Europe, yet I've seen and experienced a lot since then, and it's not really about place  so much as what you do with the place you're in (and, also important, the people around you*). I mean, looking back to my blog, and Renita's blog, I remember that the best memories, the times I enjoyed most, almost always involve someone else.

So here's to the wonderful people I've met so far, and those whose paths have crossed with mine perhaps just once and may never meet again, and those to come in the future. May we all share a wonderful experience with a stranger/friend-to-be, as often as possible.



(*I still love travelling new places, and there's a study somewhere that shows that new places can bring out other aspects of your personality, so I'm not giving up travelling any time soon, and still daydream of living abroad again).

Ever wondered if you made the right choice? And if that doubt is genuine, or just a by-product of not being happy where you are?

I've been wondering lately if I should have stayed in Europe after all. I mean, it was Europe, after all! Great food, easy access to other countries, adventure, excitement, and new cultures. As opposed to the feel-good consumerism that surrounds us in the USA.

Amsterdam bound!

Leaving for a month or more of work in Amsterdam. This is amazing! I still think it's a dream, but as long as I don't wake up from it for a while it's all good...

I think Spiegel Online outline's Palin's debate performance well:
"Her meticulously prepared phrases shot out like machine gun fire, without full stops or commas, and often without context, syntax or logic".

Also, this person's Palin flow chart is awesome:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/3/43222/8057/718/618653

I wrote this in a longer email to a friend several years ago and felt like sharing it here. I still look at those guys sitting in late-night donut shops and get a bit scared sometimes...
now, i like to think that i won't remain an underpaid, single, living-below-my-means, almost-35-with-no-steady-relationship-to-speak-of english teacher forever, but sometimes i worry. ok, lately, i worry about that *a lot*. especially when i ride muni at night and see these obviously single and lonely men in the 30s and 40s and beyond, riding back to their no-doubt rented rooms in the sunset cos they can't afford a place of their own, having neither the financial independence or the combined income of cohabitation to rely on. i don't want to become one of those guys, dammit. nor do i want to end up one of the sad, lonely-looking old men you see sitting in flourescent-lit coffee shops sipping coffee at 1am in the morning because they don't want to be alone in their squalid rented rooms or worse, have no squalid rented room to be alone in.

Have you ever run into someone you thought you'd never see again and realized how much you cared about them back then (and still do)?