Wondering and Wandering I graduated. Now what? Do I live the life I never wanted to live? The one where I move to the city, get a job in a corporate cubicle, and slave away 60 hours a week for $40,000 a year? No thanks. How about 5 years down the road when I settle on a girl I don't truly love, buy the car I don't need, have the marriage that won't last, buy the home I can't afford? No thanks. I want to see things, I want to experience life in every way. This is the only life I've got, I might as well make the most of it and do something I won't foget. So here I am, travelling the world one step at a time. Where I'm going is yet to be decided, how long I'm there is up in the air, but one thing's for sure. Whatever I do, where ever I go, I'm going to be living. You can count on that.

Well, here's the deal folks, I go through the spurts where things happen but they really aren't worth writing about, then I get these days where I get a whole bunch going on at once. When it rains, it pours right? So the past 3 days have all had exciting bits about them but I will also throw in bits about last weekend just for your reading pleasure. Let's start this off by saying that I'm one hell of a woodsmen. I can split wood with the best of em and it makes my arms even more muscular than they already are. I'm also quite full of myself (some say other things) but that's neither here nor there. Damn the Brits and their nonsense sayings. If something's not here then it has to be there. That's just the way it works. I'm not sure if I've mentioned already about things that frustrate me concerning British people but if I haven't pay attention...they use a knife for every dish served to them. It's like they have some sort of defect where they can't just leave their non-fork hand under the table, or on the table, or waving about in the air while they talk. They have to use a knife to put things on their forks. Um hello, it has tines for a reason you nutcase. Just stab your food like the rest of the civilized world, aka, me. Let's see, last weekend, I had another burger at the Spread Eagle, no really, thats the name of the pub. Before that I went and talked with cellphone girl, she's not near as hot when I'm completely sober. Scratch her off the list. After my burger I drank a lot of cider and bought a few cds to add to the collection here. Random thought, I can build a fire better than any damn eagle scout. CD's bought, Frank SInatra's greatest hits, Nina Simone, The Decemberists, Best of Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash and the sun recordings. Pretty ecletic mix but hey, thats me. Sunday I took a walk to Wales. You probably think its far away but it's not. It's like 5 miles away. I went to Skenfrith or something like that. They've got a nice castle and I took some great pics, of course. I will probably do a massive upload of my pictures tonight cause the house is clean. After the castle I took a wander into The Bell. Talk about one hell of a wine list. Probably one of the most extensive I have ever seen. The guy that owns the hotel is a wine and congac nut. The guy that owns the building is one of the top 10 richest men in the world and he lives about 5 miles outside of town. I'm going to arrange a meeting so I can be his manservent and call myself Jeeves, or Dirk, or Javier, or something cool like that. Monday sucked, Tuesday sucked, Wednesday got interesting. Before I get into it let me just mention that I've turned into Chef Boyardee. I can cook anything, even vegan smegan food. Wednesday, Ashley found out by talking to someone that there was an open mic night at Doodies, go ahead, I laughed as well. They dropped me off around 7 and boy did I start imbibing. Cider and then I switched to wine. During the night I got up some liquid courage, this was after I was taking a piss and lost a button to my jeans in the toilet, during my piss, yeah, I reached in and got it, my piss after all, anyway, I met a girl named Hannah who fits my list of perfect women in the world. We talked for a bit and hopefully we will meet up for St.Patricks day tomorrow at a pub. Who knows, who cares. The music was good but I noticed I was getting a little tipsy and called for my ride home. Thursday night, last night. Steven had to go pick something up from the other side of Monmoth and he dropped me off at the Queens Head. It happened to be Jazz Jam that night. I finally ordered a bottle of scotch. Just a double Speyside. It hit the spot. Jazz and scotch, you don't get much happier. Steve joined me a little later on and we listened for a bit and decided we liked the pub and would come back. Friday...thats today, I made my room a bit more home like with paintings by Steven and Ashley on the wall, and just played with the kids. I made a fire around 4 but we ran outta firewood so I took off for the forest to get some more. While I was there, Richard and Fiona saw me and introduced themselves (they own the castle). We had a great chat and I offered to split some firewood for Richard. Point for me. Then I told him that if he needed help in the vineyard I would be happy to help. He then proceeded to show me how to prune the vines and I'm going to help him tomorrow. It's important to be very friendly to people who own castles and make 5,000 bottles of wine a year our of their back garden. Maybe he will adopt me for a while, I don't have godparents (do I mom?) so why not. I got a chance to speak with Eva today, she has a boyfriend now...shit...scratch that one off the list. I decided, while I was consuming 4 double espressos in Starbucks to write what my perfect woman would be, lucky for me I had my journal. Now I will give you that list and see if it matches anyone you may know. Perfect Woman: -Has to own a dog, Golden Retriver or Lab preferable (no yippy dogs) -Enjoy trivia...no clue why -Somewhat cultured and willing to become more so -Artistic - theatrically, musically, painting, photography (this isn't a requirement but a bonus). If she can sing please do so only on occasion if we are listening to music together and be sure you know all the words. -Traveling is a must. (Speaking of which, I'm going to Nepal in September with Colby and Jen, then to India in November). When it comes to travel it's necessary that she not have everything planned and be willing to accept the fact that things rarely go the way you expect them too. It's called adventure travel for a reason. -She has to be smart but not smarter than me, wouldn't want to encroach on my masculinity. I hope I spelled those words right. -Be witty but don't make me hate you -Great taste in music is key, great taste is my taste with a few new things thrown in -I like movies, she should too, especially war movies and Bond. If she hasn't seen or at least heard of these 10 war movies shes cut.... Bridge Over the River Kwai, The Dirty Dozen, Red Dawn, A Bridge too Far, Green Berets, Zulu, Empire of the Sun, Kelly's Heroes, Where Eagles Dare, The Guns of Navarrone, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and The Great Escape. Everyone knows Saving Private Ryan. - Fantastic personality - Able to cook - Personable -Outdoorsish, not a Mt. Everest climber but close -Attractive, which can mean many things but I'm not gonna get into that. Take it as it comes. Ok really though, I've been writing for way to long and my bladder is busting.