becoming well-traveled

I think I have no "place" home. Home is people and where you work well. I have homes everywhere and many I have not seen yet. That is perhaps why I am restless. I haven't seen all of my homes. - John Steinbeck

Monday, July 31, 2006

business as usual

Not much new news to report. My life at this point consists – more or less – of working and sleeping. For the most part, 12 hours is a short day at the office. Generally, 13-15 hours a day is what I’m looking at for now.

That’ll last another couple of weeks until training camp wraps up on August 18.

Business at hand is my brother’s wedding back in Maryland this Friday evening. I’ve got a 6 a.m. flight out of Denver to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. I’ll be there until Saturday afternoon.

Other than that, life goes on… work, eat, sleep.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

with love from denver

Ahhh, nothing like the sight of a beautiful sunset over a strip mall. Welcome to the suburbs, (of) Denver. Everyone else makes jokes, so for some reason I feel the need to get in on the action. This will be brief as I’m a mere 15 minutes from closing time at Panera Bread. As I said, welcome to the suburbs.

At any rate, the drive out here went about as smoothly as could be expected. Essentially, it consisted of back-to-back 11-hour days on the road, split up by an overnight stop in Des Moines, Iowa. Good ol’ Iowa. Great place to grow up, but I wouldn’t want to live there again.

I made it out here in the evening of the 20th, or last Thursday. I crashed at one of my coworker’s place for the night before setting out on the apartment hunt last Friday. Initially, I achieved only futility as the first two places I visited exclusively offered 12-month leases, which don’t work for me since I’m only guaranteed work for six months.

At the second place I visited, the Leasing Consultant (tour guide) asked where else I was visiting. The mention of one apartment complex elicited this response: “Well, I don’t want to say anything bad about them, so I’m not going to say anything at all.”

Immediately, I sensed that perhaps said complex was crappy enough that it would be cheap enough for me. Indeed, indeed. Later that day I moved into said crappy apartment complex.

Now, don’t get me wrong, my place is certainly serviceable. It works for me. It’s cheap. I’m a young bachelor, so I don’t need much aside from a cheap monthly rent and a roof over my head. So I settled into my lovely place. I was going to post pictures, but forgot to upload the pictures before I came. Oops.

I started work on Monday and was immediately struck by how good my situation is here. I’m working with a very well-respected, well-connected PR staff. I get along with the fellow Grad Assistants, which is huge. Also, I’ll have the opportunity to travel with the team to half of their road games this season, which is a nice perk. Things get rolling for real tomorrow when we host our pre-camp media day, followed by the beginning of training camp on Friday.

Next week, I’ll be heading back East for a couple days for my little bro’s wedding. I’m looking forward to that whole deal aside from having to miss work at this early stage.

Anyways, I will post apartment pictures soon. Also, I will try to snap a couple pictures of the mountains which I see on my way to and from work every day. They are nice.

Also, at some point in the very near future, I’m sure I will compose a rant against the lack of public transportation in the U.S.A. Automotive traffic is out of control. We need to get on this train (literally and figuratively).

Until then, I look forward to hearing from any and all.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

the louvre

la tour eiffel

paris

notre dame at night

venezia

st. mark's basilica

a venitian street

pentecost mass at st. peter's square

the pope!

the colosseum

st. peter's square

roma

vineyards along the coast

riomaggiore, italia

an italian sunset over the mediterranean sea

this water was oh so cold

alps

farm in the alps

ahhh, yes

I seem to have neglected any sort of blogging since I've been home, likely reflecting the fact that I've seen mostly everyone who actually checks this page. Again, you probably know already, but I should note that on July 19th I will be heading to Denver, Colorado, for at least the next six months to work with the Denver Broncos. Please, hold the jokes. I've heard them all already.

At any rate, my delinquency in keeping this fabulous blog updated also means that my promise of pictures has gone unfulfilled. So, friends, without further ado, here is a sampling of my Europe pictures....