Out of office reply....

My Out-of-office reply a la Outlook...

Thank you for visiting my blog. I'm sorry I'm not hear to reply to your comments right now, but I will be back in "normal life" by December 13, 2006 after which I will be able to make fun of your comments.

I'm so excited!!! I was having trouble on Monday, knowing I was flying out Saturday morning. Now it's Friday night and it's GREAT! And terrible. I think I'm 99% packed. Just my toothbrush and this laptop left to go into bags. (Carry-on for both.)

The laundry is cleaned and packed. My scuba gear has been checked, rechecked, had spare parts packed with it and been repacked. If I stay in, I won't sleep, but if I go out I fear sleeping in. I can't win!

And yet I can't loose. :-) I'm looking forward to arriving in Bonaire tomorrow!!! And to truly relaxing into the place and enjoying fully. I'm also looking forward to taking lots of pictures, perhaps a few underwater, and posting as much as possible to this blog. Till then stay well, and if you get cold, just think of Bonaire's warm sunny weather.

Happy Thanksgiving America!

Okay, I'm not American, I'm not in America, and I've already celebrated Thanksgiving in Canada (a month ago). But honestly, "Happy Thanksgiving" just can't be said often enough!

Turkey Day is an "old" North American tradition. Unlike any of the corrupted church holidays, or any of the "long weekend" banker's holidays, Thanksgiving is a unique celebration. It's modern meaning encompasses ideas of "thankfulness" and "family". And while it marks a milestone in the Christmas-shopping calendar, Turkey Day itself isn't about material havings, givings, or receivings.

Turkey is the traditional meal, served with stuffing, gravy, potatoes, cranberry sauce and more. But really any meal that an entire family can agree to get together for is more than enough. Be it turkey or sushi, creamed corn or salsa, the meal today should be only an excuse to get together .
As this isn't my Thanksgiving day I'll be celebrating with friends, instead of family. Surrogate-family to some who are far from home and family on this day.

For the rest of you, not celebrating a national holiday of family, togetherness, and thankfulness might I recommend you keep it in your heart none the less? Like the "famous old" birthday song says," You did not accomplish much, but you didn't die this year, I guess that's good enough." So if you're reading this, you've got at least one thing to be thankful for.

Checklists and countdowns...

It's Monday evening. Just four more shopping days left to organize and pack before it's time to jump on a plane and enjoy a true vacation! And thus... I'm deep in mental checklists, packing ideas, equipment preparation, etc..

Today I went out for a few unusual items. Sunscreen (Holland in November?) Even just the extra package of hair elastics. Important to any long-haired diver! I've just received my spare fin strap (you can't be too careful) and just bought a new wetsuit perfect for tropical waters. Do I pack my first-aid kit, or assume the place I'm diving with has them? And always, if my laundry takes 36 hrs to hang dry, when do I have to start the first load in order to have only dry clothes in the suitcase? One of life's hardest math problems!

Checklists and countdowns take some of the joy out of the anticipation. A lot of the joy actually!

But the optimist in me always wins. Today I bought milk that expires just after I'm gone. Perfect! Little things can be just as much fun as the big ones. My official PADI card arrived today. So I can flash it around novice dives and provoke awh and reverence. (No, not really.) But basically all the paperwork I'll require is coming together. Insurance is bought. Need more sunscreen. Still need to pack a save-a-dive spares kit...

... shoot, I'm doing it again. Checklists and countdowns. I'm going to need a vacation after planning and having a vacation this long! Ah, poor me. ;-)

Too Busy To Blog!

Sure it's absolutely counter-intuitive, counter-productive, and just plain silly, but the fact that I'm too busy to blog is entirely blog-worthy and thus must be written about!

I'm still on an extended vacation (should I call it a sabatical?) and still sleeping in way too late and going to bed at stupid hours. But I'm managing way more than sitting around. I'm actually busy! Two days ago I spent the whole day (and night) in Gouda visiting an old friend I've missed talking to for ages. This morning I woke up and helped a friend 6 time-zones away by proof-reading a paper. Now I'm off to help another friend set up a WiFi network, then I'll barely have time for dinner before meeting the guys for pool (billiards) night. After that, some time around midnight, another friend is getting off work, and this being Friday that may be reason enough to stay out for a few more hours.

So I'll be surprised if tonight isn't another late one, and if tomorrow isn't late. I'll recover on Sunday. For now, energy is for using, not storing. I've gotta go out and burn some energy!

p.s. I was too busy to wait for Blogger to unglitch itself, so this post actually was published much later in the day.

Virtual Spot!

My cat's name is Spot. He's an old black tomcat who now lives with my parents in Canada. He's going a little grey with time (he's like a million in cat years) but still loves balls and string and sticks.

I've seen virtual pets around the 'net for a while now. But I hadn't ever realized the potential for playing with them! It was just yesterday I played with Ferdinand, a blog-friend's virtual pet from Bunnyhero Labs. (Her blog was down and I only had the Blogger sidebar, including pet, to keep me entertained.) At first I was just excited that the pet's eyes were following my cursor. I'd never noticed that before! Then I realized you could interact!!! Pets can be fed. My virtual-spot cat can even be played with. And can be put in and out of his basket. (Please remember to put him back in his basket when you're done.) They follow your cursor, respond to clicks, and are almost as entertaining as some of the real (e.g. fish) pets they mimic.

So go ahead, grab the stick with the ball, or a tin of tuna, and go play with virtual spot for a while. He's just down the sidebar on your right. He'll be happy to have company. And I'm happy to have him on the blog now!

Exercise! At long last!

It had been over a month since I did anything I think of as exercise. No diving, no gym visits. Heck, 6 weeks really! So I'm super energized and happy to announce that I made it to the gym yesterday!!!

Would you believe it? While I was gone some right-thinking individual opened a new gym right beside my apartment! And since exercise is like any good addiction, the first visit is FREE! Free access to the weights, the machines, the big plasma TVs on the wall to help you forget you look like a git running in place. (I like exercise and thus I like the gym. But treadmills are funny looking.)

I went with a friend who had NO clue what the machines did or what to do with herself in a gym. Good thing too, since it cut my workout short, which today is clearly saving me a lot of pain! So I got to talk about muscle groups and abduction and sets and stuff, and that was fun too. Had I done one more set on any of the muscle groups I targetted I would now regret it.

Rather than pain, I've got energy! Not necessarily as hyper as all the exclamation marks might imply, but energy that wasn't there yesterday when I was desperately trying to motivate myself to get some exercise. Today everything's happened (waking, showering, etc.) an hour or two earlier than "normal". And I can't wait to get out to enjoy the next few moments of winter's daylight.

Tomorrow??? Definitely need more exercise! So I'll get up that much earlier and go straight there tomorrow. (In the hopes of meeting staff who haven't seen me use my first free visit.)

There aren't that many addictions that feel this good or are so good for you. Food, water, air, exercise. It's right up there. So I guess if you're feeling winter inside, my advice is to go scam a free trip to the gym!

The Living Room

The living room I'm sitting in is an ocean of sites, smells, movement and touch.

I don't think I've ever noticed before, but the wind is spilling through the cracked-open window like a chilly river over a waterfall. The air grabs the plant's leaves and gently shakes them while it spills down to the floor. It then spreads outwards, over my toes and on through the apartment.

It brings with it new smells. Crisp clean air. It sweeps away the smells of cooking and replaces them with all the colours of autumn. Colourful air.

Else where shadows dance. The sun has set and the bright of day has been replaced by the softer glow of bulbs. Shadows began to settle into corners and under chairs, where they built strength and grew. Like watching a young man age to old, the shadows crept in leaving the room and older more wrinkled visage. Normally an invisible change, except with patience.

While the cool wind rolls over the floor, the warm computer sits on my over-warm lap. It's hard smooth form has a bee's buzz to it. It's all exactly opposite from the softness of the couch upon which I sit. The fabric looks grey but the cushions, so soft, make a feeling of yellow and orange.

The TV is spewing it's drivle into the room, but a host of other sounds clamber over and around each other to be heard. The child outside wants to be heard, by some one, and the computer sitting in the corner tries valiantly to drown him out. Then a diesel is started. Yet the fridge still sits in the background, quietly humming his simple one note tune. Always there, never listened to. Even my breathing sounds in; a sighful exhilation suddenly matching a car speeding off.

Sunday, Sunny Sunday

What a beautiful day. Not precisely blue skies and sunny, but the sun is definitely blinding my eyes right now and that's enough. Actually, it's grey and windy and pretty cold outside. But it's also Sunday and it feels to me as though the entire city is resolved to spend a quiet lazy day.

For me that means getting up and going out for a bit. There are just some places worth going out of your way for. Not for what you can do there, but for what you don't do.

Spending a Sunday afternoon in a cafe is about doing mostly nothing. Sometimes sharing the more interesting aspects of that nothing with the person sitting beside you, other times not. When the cafe is also your local it's a lot like having a much-more-interesting-than-normal living room outside your home. It's as comfortable as (1) turn off the TV, (2) turn on some music, and (3) watch the interesting (and sometimes bizarre) cast of characters move past for your enjoyment.

It's a good thing.

Two writes don't make a wrong.

Yeah, more that feels right to write about! In a recent (moments ago) comment to the last post, Minka pointed out...

"There are people who look at the sky and smile right back at it, [then] pick up a flower and put it in their button loop...you just have to look really hard to find them."

This is absolutely true! And it made me immediately think of a number of times, while working in the U.S., I literally stopped to smell the roses (flowers) and someone was shocked. It made me laugh each time! But I swear that the simple act of taking a step sideways and bending over, just to sniff a freshly-bloomed flower, was unusual in both act and thought.

While I may have worried some of my coworkers (for reasons I hope never to understand) it was a double blessing for me. Those work times were long, hot, high pressured, and really challenging. Work to the exclusion of all else. So the chance to not only "stop and smell the flowers" but also to laugh out loud was a soul building moment in a soul destroying time and place.

At times I really truly disliked the work I was doing and where I was doing it. (I was homesick.) But after it all, I remember the warm mornings, the squirrels and chipmunks acting like idiots, and the flourishing of flowers all around, from every garden, potted plant, and road side.

That's reason number 387 why you should stop and smell the roses from time to time. Because in the end, beauty in sight and smell will be remembered long after the hardships and toil.

Writing feels right right now.

Well I've already spent the morning writing. Emails, blog comments, to-do lists in my mind, so I thought I might as well stop by the blog and write something here. Trouble is, I'm sitting here in the best part of my day and I am without motivation on what to write about.

I've often thought of doing a blog of notions, quips, sayings, thoughts, and ideas. Some dumb, some wise, some so deep they're meaningless. I think up a thought from time to time but never write it down. For example...

"Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Ever notice how the author (Bill somebody) completely leaves out any discussion on the idea of loving and "winning"? Hmmm. Maybe it simply is "Best to have loved and lost." N'est pas?

I suspect, however, that if I filled a blog entry with my own thoughts, it would come off as a bit too sarcastic and dark. A large part of my current bliss stems from ignoring all consequences and long-term outlooks. (Well, not normally, but I'm on vacation darn it!)

I guess a happier thought would be something more like...

Why don't adults ever take the time to looks at clouds? Sure here in Holland clouds tend to be homogeneous grey from horizon to horizon, but the days they aren't... why don't more of us stop and enjoy the beauty of a cloud as it blows by far over our heads?

Some of my ideas might come off as preachy, and that's not the goal. But I think a lot about stuff like...

When discussing "sustainable development" does any one get that defacto most existing growth and development is "unsustainable"? So without change, there will be a limit, and hitting that limit hard would be a very bad thing. What would you do if you were suddenly required to live with a fraction of the energy you now use?

I do like to keep my blog often topical to scuba diving. So I'll mention I still need a buddy to go to Bonaire (or any where really) next week. Where I hope to do ample amounts of night diving. But that's all that's to say there.

If it was time for personal information sharing then I'd say that I should be in the gym working off my "america weight". Perhaps I'll just start with a shave and shower and see what happens next.

But as you can see... I can't decide. So I'll just have to close today's blog here. Because I've got nothing to write about. Oh well, have a great day!

The sauce is cooking... an update

The pasta sauce (tomato, meat, and veggies) is cooking slowly on the stove. Starting it at 4pm is just perfect for a 6:30 or 7pm dinner.

In the mean time, there's so much going on all at once, that I thought I should stop and do a personal update, rather than a normal post. I'm not keen to make this blog too much about me. But without an update some of the other blogs might not make sense.

I'm originally from near to Niagara Falls Canada, lived and worked in Canada until 29, then moved to Europe and have been living in Amsterdam for almost 6 years now. Lately, my engineering consulting work has been largely freelance. So my last 2 contracts had me working in the U.S., living out of hotels, and spending 12 hours plus per day infront of multiple computers. In every way that matters to the soul, I'm unemployed at the moment (not on paper) and enjoying and relaxing as much as possible.

Lately I've managed to solve a number of annoying problems, including what to do next for work. I've had a couple of job interviews and have been told to expect a written job offer shortly.

In the mean while, the last dive I had back in September to finish my Divemaster internship is still the last dive I was on. I've already missed opportunities in Canada and Holland to get wet. Frustrated by this state of affairs, I've decided to go away and dive some beautiful warm tropical place. Hopefully Bonaire. I'm planning on just hopping a plane and going without a dive buddy. So if anyone wants to go... just say so!

Pardon me, the sauce needs stirring.

I'm hoping to find a diveshop/resort that can use some assistance so I can gain some divemastering experience. Still, if all I get to do is fly through warm clear water, that's enough!

There is one aspect of life that has been conspiquously missing from my blog as from life in general lately. That would be a companion of the female type. But for now I'll be happy in a new job (based out of Amsterdam!), lots of diving (warm and cold) to look forward to, and finally being home after too too long a trip away.

I'm booking the vacation!

WOOHOO! During my hellish tour of duty in the U.S. I kept promising myself that it would be all made worth while by having a grand vacation afterwards. Well, two weeks after arriving home and I've just called to sort the details on the vacation! Woohoo hoowoo!

I've gotta run now. But long story short is (1) I have a verbal job offer, and (2) I'm using that bit of security to justify all the expenses (and joys!) of a last-minute tropical diving vacation.

*bubble* *bubble*

Life is beautiful. I just hope there's a big enough gap after coming back from vacation before starting work. ROTFL!

No diving today. ;-(

OMG this sucks! I woke up this morning just before 6am in order to make the long journey to meet the club for a dive day. I shaved and showered and grabbed my two bags of dive gear then made my way via taxi to Amsterdam Centraal Station and then to The Hague. The dive club operates out of a dive shop right next to the train station (as well as also in Rotterdam and Amsterdam).

So I made it there at 8am, expecting to start packing tanks and weights and be on the road by 9am. Alas, shortly before 9am one of the staff (who showed up for a different reason) made some calls and found out that the club had met at and left from the Rotterdam store... an hour earlier.

So I'm home now. It took four hours to make the trip, 23 Euros for the bus/trains/taxi, and I gave up my Saturday night to stay rested and hydrated. Ugh!

I'm terribly dissappointed, but surprisingly not angry. If nothing else this will help with the jetlag tremendously. And I do tend to spend too much money on Saturday nights in Amsterdam during full moons. :-) So I'm sure I saved more than the money I've paid.

Oh well. No big deal as I *WILL* be going out with the club next weekend. For now... a lazy Sunday and an early night to bed.

The Bunnies Win!

Wow, yesterday I declared the jetlag was winning. Today in my cleaning efforts, I found bunnies I don't want to touch. And so they win. Bad!

I'll get them eventually. But not today.

I woke up (barely) with great intentions. This morning I attacked the stove with 7-8 months of grease buildup on it's cooking surface. It's clean now! But above it hangs the true enemy. In the vent above the stove sits a colony of grease soaked dust bunny commandos. This species of dust bunny can't be vaccuumed. It can't be wiped without smearing. And it can't be removed and soaked without certainly spoiling the nice clean stove underneath it. So that battle must wait.

Oh well, I made a call and scheduled what is essentially a second interview. Yippee! And it's in the afternoon, so my jetlag won't stop me from getting the job! :-)

For now, there's laundry to hang, vacuuming to do, and large parts of kitchen to keep attacking. Wish me luck! I hope I don't find any other terrible foes.

p.s. Yeah, I started cleaning about a week ago. This is the continuation, after a brief break for a party bender. >:-)

Jetlag is winning!

Help! I can't sleep at night or stay awake during the day!

So last night, for example, I was a good boy and was home well before 11pm. I hit the bed a little late for my midnight target, but honestly wasn't at all sleepy.

Tossing and turning were the results.

I caught bits of sleep, but mostly just started to get hungry.

At around 4am I had no choice but to eat something.

Silly me had played with the fridge temperature control earlier. So it was a new experience to wait for the frozen milk to thaw into my cereal.

Needless to say, TV was far more enticing than sleep. So it was another 90 minutes or more before I crawled back into bed.

Just in time...

To hear my roommate off to work.

And the sun was rising.

Not up, but definitely rising.

After hours of fighting over whether it's night or day, my body finally agrees it's time for sleep. Just as the world is waking up.

That's okay, I've set two alarms.

Which sounded far sooner than anything else in the night had prepared me to expect. Two buzzers buzzing. I look up at the clock and it says....


I hate jetlag.

Just blogging for the sake of it

These little monkeys have nothing at all to do with this blog. But a friend of mine is very excited about working with them soon. And hey, they're monkeys! Cool. :-)

It's been a lazy weekend. I hit this town running last week and never stopped for breath, except a bit of cleaning and a couple business appointments. Now my internal clock is highly confused! I can't sleep before 4am and tend to wake on my own late in the afternoon. Hopefully last night's switch back to GMT+1 will help a bit. I essentially woke an hour sooner than intended.

I've been back to reading and news lately too. Enjoying Canadian political humour, reading up on the latest international stupidity.

It's great to be home! The other day I was talking to an American-expat friend of mine. I looked her straight in the eyes and said," Bush is an idiot, the U.S. is screwing up world politics, and I already believe in God but don't have a religion, thank you." After 7-months away from home, in the States and Canada, I had learned to self-censor my topics and conversations. Never talk about religion or politics. And these days you can't touch other topics like foreign events, sex, education, war, oil and more without walking a slippery path to religion or politics.

My friend said," Yeah, so?" I think she's wonderful for that response!

I said," Nothing, I just haven't been able to say that to anyone for many months now." She understood.

Aren't they cute monkeys???

I wish I had pictures

When ever I'm walking through the streets in the centre of Amsterdam I always end up wishing I had my camera with me. But even when I do have it, I feel funny about walking down the street taking pictures (or videos) so I still have nothing to post.

There are just so many photo perfect images! Every where you turn, especially at night, the place and the people blend together to form the most perfect portraits of life here.

It all goes to forming a lovely state of contentment. And life has pitched in to help! I had a job interview yesterday and have already had "good sounding" but non-commital comments from the perspective employer. They're sending me product materials to learn from and we're arranging further meetings. Woohoo!

I think I know why I don't pull the camera out. This city is about a feeling.

I know lots about F-stops, auto-focus, etc. but I don't know how use a camera to caputre a feeling like the contentment of finally being home!

Day... three?

I've been home for just over 72 hours! The apartment is half clean.

Yesterday war raged! No matter how much the vacuum sucked and strained, wave after wave of dusty-bunny soldiers stormed the nozel, clogging the bag and spewing tomorrow's dust sediment through the air. Behind every box and item of furniture they sat in wait; only to scurry around the floor the moment their hiding place was disturbed. They would immediately run towards whatever section of floor had just been cleaned. But I kept fighting!

Some bunny platoons... especially those on high shelves... released dirty bombs the moment their location was discovered. You could see the air all around slowly sinking to the floor... to regroup and attack again. But I kept fighting!

It took a bucket, squeegy, sponge, dust rags, and a vacuum. But I kept fighting!

I would like to declare that anti-dust forces have been successful in their battles against the dust-bunnies. The green zone, in the bedroom and hallway, is expected to remain clean and to ensure this, anti-dust forces will be moving into the kitchen and livingroom to reclaim terriroty (such as the spot under the couch) in the name of clean-loving peoples every where.

I'm Home, I'm Home, I'm really Home!

I have literally drempt of this moment! But each time I had this dream I ended up waking up in a hotel.

Friday October 20 at 17:16 EST, leaving Toronto Canada

I'm on the plane! I can't believe it, because I came REALLY close to not making it, and then the race at the end almost killed me. As all good boys and girls do, I arrived at the airport (Toronto's Pearson International) three hours in advance for my flight. Perhaps too early, because the near emptiness of the entire terminal lulled me into a dangerous complacency.

When I arrived, I checked my baggage (all four), paid my overweight charges ($230) and grabbed a cigarette all in less than 10 minutes. There were no lines, no waits, and there was still nearly 3 hours left and no apparent reason to hurry. So I went for lunch. I stopped, ate, had two beers, and spent my time talking to three lovely young ladies off to England and Cuba. Perfect!

Except when I stepped out from lunch the security lines for the gates stretched farther than the eye could see. Over the horizon! I had 90 minutes before the plane was scheduled to depart, only 30 minutes until boarding was to begin, and well... security took me 87 minutes! EIGHTY SEVEN!!! They even decided to swab my baggage for explosive (I think that's what they were doing) and for the first time EVER my belt buckle set the metal detector off.

But hey, I already gave away that I made it to the plane. :-) What I didn't mention was the flat out run from one end of the terminal to the other while the public address system blared my name and claimed that my gate was closing. I was the only one not on and made it with less than 60 seconds to spare.

And that's when my asthma attack hit!

God verdomme I hate that!!! I sat in my seat and figured I'd be okay. It was mild. My lungs were building phlegm and I started coughing a bit, but I was still fine. And within minutes, we took off. Oh wow, does that ever change things. What's good on the ground isn't at all good at 8,000 feet ASL and we were there.

I swear of all the flights I've been on (this is my 29th trip across the Atlantic for example) that was the fastest a pilot has ever turned off the seat-belt sign. Amazing! I was able to jump up, grab my inhaler from the overhead, and duck off to the lavatory where my lungs eventually gained normalcy. Writing this bloc [section of] entry followed immediately.

I didn't want to wait, because I've had an amazingly crazy airport experience and wanted to type this while still feeling the shaking in my hands.

Marsha, I wish you all the best on your upcoming wedding! I hope your trip through security and onwards to England is less stressful than mine. Crazy-camera-lady, best of luck catching your flight and have a safe trip back to Winter-peg. That really did take BIG balls to jump into the security line when/where you did but it seems to have worked out for everyone involved... plus I enjoyed talking to you.

23:01 EST / 05:01 CET, 36,000 feet over England

Wow! One hour to landing! This seems to have been a really short flight. Perhaps because it took at least an hour for me to believe I was actually on it? Perhaps because I watched and enjoyed all three in-flight movies? Perhaps because all the young pretty Dutch women kept wandering throughout the cabin? Who knows, it's been good.

Perhaps I'm doing the calculation wrong? I haven't even had any nicotine gum yet!

But wait, there's the captain saying we're preparing to land in "less than one hour!"

Woohoo!

Saturday October 21 at 17:46 CET, Amsterdam NL

*yawn* Good morning all! Wow, this time I woke up still here! I'm probably not dreaming. :-)

I've way overslept my plan. I knew if I let myself sleep after arriving this morning that this would happen. But by 8am local time I crashed into bed with the alarm set to 11:30. That somehow got interpreted by my sleeping body as 5:30pm. Oh well....

But who really cares?!?! I'm Home!!!

24 Hours til home....

Wow, what a difference a day makes. This time last night I couldn't sleep. I was too excited by the prospects of imminently being home, in Amsterdam, in my own bed, cleaning my apartment and enjoying unemployment.

Today the word is trepidation.

I'm tired and I wish all the next part of the journey would just disappear. But I also wish I could just hit pause, and stay in this moment and place longer. A lot longer.

When I first picked up and went away, far from home, it was hard. Really really hard. I remember leaving work and going to the airport with tears streaming from my eyes, wondering what insane descision I had made for myself. Today isn't nearly that bad, but all those emotions are there (here) again.

Coming home to my family on Thanksgiving was AMAZING! Children cried, people yelled to be heard, the same old turkey was served and went to waste, and I loved it. 12 days later, the shine is gone. My family still get on my nerves. I still get on their nerves. This town holds no future for me. But leaving home never (ever?) gets easier.

An adventure is closing.

During the last half year I've met Frank and Lies (whom I hope to know forever), Nate and Brian (you GEEKS!) who where awsome, got to know Joby more than I should have, met Diana and Debby and Megan (none as well as I'd like) and dozens of other people who have enriched my life. I've tried not to neglect Esther, and Adam, and Humaira, although I'm sure I've missed pivital points in their lives. And I've grown a lot (WHOLE LOT!!!) as a person myself.

Tomorrow's plane flight marks a passage from one adventure to another. I know not what is in store. And I sleep better for not knowing. It's going to be tough, and parts will suck. But when all is said and done, I simply hope I know even more wonderful people, have enriched my life and person even more, and am still up for the next adventure.

*sigh*

God, please give me the strength to continue what I so long ago started. And please get me home to my bed ASAP.

Sincerely,
Morgan (I Dive At Night)

p.s. I think once home, my soul requires a few night dives to keep the whole thing rolling. :-) So I pray I'm also destined to be hooked up with a good PADI shop too!