March 16th - 9:00 AM seemed like a reasonable time to roll off of the couch, still fully dressed from the flight down. Sometime during the night Thomas had been compelled by his roommate to remove himself from the bathroom floor where he had passed out blocking the toilet. (I had made sure he had a pillow and a blanket - poor bastard. There was a picture of this awesomeness, but the embarrassed fellow deleted it from my phone when I wasn’t looking.) I completed the three S’s in record time and tried to rally the brothers. Andy wasn’t in bad shape, having peeled himself off the couch sometime during the night and gotten a good night’s sleep in a bed. Thomas was nothing short of death incarnate. Andy told us that when Thomas awoke in ... read more

The car is sold. The house is sold. Remaining possessions are in storage. Goodbyes have been said. The final hometown meal has been eaten. Now I wait as the night passes until my morning flight to New York. Twelve hours from now I will step onto a plane and be homeless, rootless, and free. The song says, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” I don’t agree with the hippy. I have a lot to lose. I’ll lose compounding interest on my retirement and cash assets. A romance I am trying to maintain will probably be lost in the shuffle of my travels. I’ll lose precious months pursuing the next steps in my career. And I’ll lose equity in my sold real estate investment. In reality, freedom means being willing to lose, not merely ... read more