exact change only

So much is different than it was a year and a half ago that even posting all the changes in list format would be arduous and incomplete. Well, let's see what will come out:

Last time I was in New Jersey was August 2010. It fortified my soul and the visit was not nearly long enough. I went to Jessica (Chiarella) Voss' wedding, and saw my heart, Splissa, and stayed a few days with my Aunt Alice (who took us to NYC), went to Seaside (WAY too crowded since the last time I was there), got IHOP with some high school friends.......I think I really should live up there. It makes me so happy.

I finished my Associates of Science. I ended up majoring in Physics, and LOVED my professor, and the whole experience, really. I finally made some friends while I was there, and I love them. I made friends after school too, and got back in touch with a few I'd not spoken to in at least a year if not more. (Kellen, Calix, and Brandon come to mind.) They are all so wonderful, and I miss them...

...because I live in Virginia now. I couldn't afford to stay in Arizona. Despite my best efforts, things converged and pushed me back to my family. I guess that's alright though, because getting along is easier than it ever was (for reasons I'd probably be better off not going into). I hope I'm doing some good here. It's been so slow, but I'm trying.

And I found a job! Here in Virginia, the liquor stores are run by the VA Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and are known as ABC stores. I got hired to work at our local one recently, and it's actually pretty fun. I like my coworkers and the patrons so far have been nice (sometimes overly nice, but it's been tolerable).

I brought Nibbler (the good kitty) with me when I came out here, and now I live with my good sister (Marian), so that's been pretty great. I have been back on speaking terms with the other sister too, and I guess we'll see how that turns out. It's been okay as of late.

I have been off the Ambien for a little while now. I've always had a hard time getting enough sleep though, and some nights are much worse than others. Sometimes I end up using benadryl or an otc sleep aid, but I'm trying to stay away from prescription stuff. It's just one less thing to worry about.

Within the past year, I converted to Whovianism. Erm, is that a word? I started watching Doctor Who. It is absolutely wonderous, and I can't really describe why...and attempting to do so would be incredibly silly. I've got Marian and my dad watching it, too, and that makes it a bit more fun.

The Doctor makes me feel less alone in the world.

On my way to Virginia (about a month and a half ago, now) I met my new friend Miles on my connecting flight from Houston to Greensboro. He was supposed to be a single serving friend, but facebook ended up thwarting that. He has told me I'm his best facebook friend and let me tell you, that's quite an interesting compliment. Don't you think so?

Well, that's all I have to say about the recent past. How do you even summarize a year and a half? By skipping over the big, strange things (like oh, say, a break-up) and concentrating on the more recent, innocuous things (such as what I wrote above), and pretty much skipping all daily minutiae. You just do not remember all of it. Your brain is not designed for that. Are all those little details even important? Was anything I just said important?

Having recently read some old blog posts from many years ago, as well as the old entries on this account, I'm finding that those little details I put in those blogs ARE important. Well, maybe not to others, but they are to me. When you look back at them much later, you read them and flinch or grin or get hit with an interesting memory you would never have found again if it weren't for that little reminder. Then, you wonder how many little interesting things throughout your day to day life you may have forgotten about, and are sort of glad you recorded those silly little things to look back at later. It's almost like reading about a different person, when it's something you don't remember well. How interesting is it to think of your past self as someone else entirely? Actually, all of this makes me wonder about my whole plane-hopping, insomnia-addled life, and how I've been feeling in the time I've been back here, looking at all of these dusty relics my mother saved from my childhood, half-remembered, pieces of the past I once ran from staring me in the face, as if I'd perhaps never left them and all that happened away from this place was someone else's reality...

"If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?"