Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Astrological Sign and Occupation


Taurus (April 20-May 20)

A Taurus is practical, methodical, determined, patient, honest, dependable and a good team player. Look to the fields of banking, accounting and scientific research for your perfect job.

Finally, I have complete validation in the correct career choice, because it was pre-destined, after all.

Ha.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

The fortune of friends


As I was encouraged to make a small toast at dinner last night with a small group of friends, I momentarily panicked, thinking that it was nearly impossible to succinctly express my sentiments and gratitude for their friendship, given the short time allotted. Having had my second "going away/congratulatory" dinner within a two-day span, I realized how lucky I am to have made the connections that I have, and that I'm a drastically changed person than I was when I moved here to St. Louis, almost 27 months ago. During my 24 years, I've experienced a countless number of good-byes and departing expressions, and although they never get any less difficult, I've resigned myself to admitting their inevitability . But yet I still grow ever optimistic of relationships and their potential for growth despite distance. Yes, I admit that I now have acquaintances who were previously friends, as time constraints and different localities have played a pivotal role in this slow demise. However, the opposite also holds true. I can much more easily recount the number of people whom I've grown much closer to through the years, even in direct correlation with drastic life changes, moves, and all. For I've come to understand that the things that are important to me will remain just that, and that they must be harvested in order to reap their full benefits. So I see all of this as just one more divergent turn in the road, not a barrier. I know who where my true friendships lie, and for that I'm thankful.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

The little city that could... and things I'll miss about it.


*Brisk morning jogs through Forest Park

*Co-workers who lend a sympathetic heart when yet again, this academic hierarchy that I work for takes advantage of my passiveness.

*The people I’ve met and befriended, who in just two short years, have managed to shape who I am in innumerable ways.

*Being able to walk everywhere.

*The ability to buy hand-dipped ice cream at two-thirty in the morning.

*Living in a neighborhood where heterosexuals are the minority.

*Being able to (mostly jokingly) stereotype people based strictly on their location of residence.

*The option to run an errand, make a doctor’s appointment, or simply go home for lunch during the middle of the workday.

*The ten-cent price differential in gas prices between here and Chicago.

*My version of the “Cheers” bar, and weekday happy hours just for the heck of it.

*Being able to meet my boyfriend for lunch or an afternoon matinee.

*Having friends who don’t remember the person I was back then.

*Not seeing my expectant friend’s baby when he/she is finally born.

*Not going to see my favorite local band, of which a good friend is the bassist.

*Going to Cardinals’ games.

*Living in a place where it’s completely appropriate and acceptable to wear red for entire length of the baseball season.

*Having established a life that is all my own in the making

*Being able to answer the question “How did you come to live here?” with: “No premise at all, I pretty much decided the week before the move”.

*Encapsulated by people whose normal vocabulary include words like “population endemic, linear regression analysis, or case-control study”.

*Being Catholic in a Catholic town.

*Going to a school where I was definitely not treated as a number. And even if I were, that number would be somewhere between 1 and 42.

*Setting my own hours to match my own naturally geriatric habits.