Today's date is June 11, 2004. Date of departure is (nearly officially) July 13, 2004. I have a $1,000 plane ticket to buy. I have some $2,500 classes to register and pay for. I have a (hard-copy) letter that I need received from the school, proving that I've registered and payed for classes. I need a (hard-copy) letter from a doctor stating that I'm in general good health. I need a notorized letter from my mum saying that I'll be financially secure. I need to have some more passport photos taken. I need to register for medical insurance abroad. I need to compose a letter designating Dan Miller as my legal representative so that he can drop the application at the Chicago consulate. The process takes two to four weeks. Let's not forget to mention that I'm working 6am - 5pm with no lunch. OMG what a whine-o. So the deal is I'll have to visit Chicago when it's ready and pick it up IN PERSON.

I'm torn because I don't know whether or not to purchase an iPod. We'll see what happs.

I don't wanna be mean or anything, but this blog has become pathetic -- and why? Just because I was gone for a bit and am now overwhelmed with objectives, doesn't mean you all have to quit with the long diary-like posts. It's not fair to make me feel responsible! Let's get the inspiration rolling again. Everyone do your part today!

I've made about $1,000 selling things I don't use.

Let me explain what's going on real quick. This is hard to explain, because I don't really want to sound like something I don't want to sound like -- but I probably am it anyway so I guess I'll just have to deal with that. So among all the self cleansing and discipline I've been putting myself through lately I've somehow, and understandably, been accruing all this sort of space and freedom -- which at the same time, and also understandably, was feeding this floating, lost, or confused thing that's always going on. The ever-growing feelings of shame and/or embarrassment for living in and contributing to the nation had been for long again uncovered and they come into play here, but just a little bit. So as all of this was being soaked up I remembered that a few months earlier an opportunity'd been thrown my way, which I'd completely ignored. You have no idea how melodramatic and semi-literal that last sentence was by the way, but I'm going to reveal how completely lame it was by telling you that this little revelation was stumbled upon somehow while running through the cats and dogs of some terrible thunderstorm. Whatever. Anyway, that's how things got started and though it's so impulsive and seemingly last minute -- well, you know how I do.

I'm going to Rochester again this weekend. Let's make this a super-active day.

Sher-bear: terrible