Hello again, everyone!
As the title reads, YES, I am on vacation. Don't get the wrong idea here, I'm not sipping tropical drinks being served by scantily clad, poolside servants. It's not to some exotic locale, or even a quiet, remote cabin in the woods. I'm taking three weeks away from NYC for two very special occasions: the weddings of my friends Adam & Kara in Chicago and Cody & Brittany in Cincinnati.
Over the last years since I moved to New York, I've found myself beginning to miss out on some milestones in the lives' of the people I love most: the birth of Charlie and Stacey's children, Charles and Rachel's first baby girl, David & Ali's wedding (now expecting their first child!), Mark & Elyse's wedding, Kristina & Luke's wedding, etc. These are events I never thought I wouldn't be able to pull to mind any number of fond--perhaps, slightly disjunct--memories for the rest of my life. Yet, I was not there for any of them. Now, of course, I know everyone misses out on things throughout their life, but the amount that I've missed out on has been weighing on me the last year or so. As the old saying goes, "Nothing is guaranteed except death and taxes," but I'd like to think there's more to life than that. At least, I'd like to make more of life than that. So when Adam called me last fall to ask me to do a reading at their wedding, there was no way I was going to miss it. Furthermore, when Cody and Brittany asked me to officiate their wedding, I'm pretty sure I was saying "YES!" before they could finish the question. I wanted to make it a point to not miss out on special moments. Otherwise, I'd just be waiting on pissy tourists in Times Square that aren't going to tip me because "they don't know how" or some other bullshit reason any and all will come up with (more on this at a later date).
This is all to say, I'm ready to actually LIVE my life. Am I getting fed up with waiting tables? That happened long ago. Does it still pay the bills? Thankfully, yes. Am I ready to give up on NYC and start another chapter somewhere else? Definitely not. What I'm saying is that I'm not compromising.
Of course, as I actually type out this mission statement of sorts, I am realizing how tall an order this is. Suffice to say, I completely understand this and respond like Barney Stinson with a resounding "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!"
I'm gonna try to post more throughout my vacation. I've been thinking a lot over the last several months and just want to get it all out of my head. Hopefully, it'll be some at the very least slightly entertaining.
Hope you're all well and enjoying some beautiful weather.
Until next time...
