Monday, August 27, 2007
I don't have any pictures today, but I have a few random things to talk about.
School started up again and I'm feeling good about it. So far, the teachers all seem reasonable and sane. Sane is always good. I have an elective this semester that I'm actually excited about and the end of my bachelor degree is in sight which is great and also terrifying. As a friend of mine recently pointed out, I am at the age where you have to pick. It's time to decide, for better of worse and hope everything turns out or at least doesn't blow up in my face.
That brings me to the next subject....my friend at work announced that he is engaged. When I first started working at the office on campus, T and I discussed just about everything under the sun. He felt at 33 he was ready to get married and start a family. I was a little unsure about the whole thing, hell, I'm still unsure. T thought that his girlfriend wasn't ready and he was worried that they would have to go their seperate ways to get what they want. At least, until a couple of weeks ago, when she told him that she had been thinking and marriage and children was something she wanted. T, of course, quietly freaked out. Apparently, the idea of marriage and babies was a little different than the reality. Of course, for this story to have it's happy ending, he had to realize that being with her was what he wanted and getting married was the right thing for them.
Marriage was something that, at 20, I was sure was in my future. Now, at 30, I'm finding it harder and harder to find reasons why I would want to get married. Would I consider it if someone asked me? Sure. But, it's not something that I see as a goal anymore. Don't get me wrong, I would love to find someone to build a life with, a partner to share with all the ups and downs of life, but I don't necessarily think you need to get married to do that. I don't think people take those love, honor and cherish vows seriously and that's the only part I'm interested in. I'm perfectly happy living together, but for someone like T and his fiance, family obligations and the desire for children rather quickly makes marriage the best idea for them. Why am I even talking about this, considering I don't even have any prospects for marriage? I have no idea. But, it's something to talk about and something we've been talking about at work a lot lately. Moving on...
I probably mentioned in previous entries that I have been taking the metrolink to school, but I don't think I talked about what my ultimate plan was. Parking is expensive at my school. It costs a set amount per credit hour to park on campus each semester and that doesn't even factor in the money spent on gas driving to and from each day. Now that I live in an urban environment, I decided to take advantage of the great public transporation available and save some money on travel. I will now be driving the 3 miles to the nearest metro station and taking a train to school. Rather than fighting traffic, I can listen to my mp3 player, read or just relax on the way to school. Rather than pay the $150+ for parking, I pay $60 for a metro pass, per semester. Now, we wait and see how well this works. I'm sure there will be more stories and definitely pictures throughout the semester of the interesting people. For instance?
There are young men who ride the metro, getting off and on the various cars at each stop. Why? To pick up women. If they see an attractive girl get into another car, they wait until the next station and switch to her car and so on and so on until....they get a date? No idea, but it's interesting to watch.