Chris

I lived/worked in Russia for four and a half years, and learning to speak Russian made it a much more enjoyable experience. I think it would be incredibly hard to do if you don’t have it around you all the time, but it’s certainly not a requirement. By the time I left I could speak well enough that people didn’t immediately know that I was an American. I can’t say that I’m fluent, unfortunately, and after 3 years removed from speaking it daily I’ve gotten pretty rusty. Learning any foreign language is a constant effort, so you’re always progressing when it isn’t your native tongue. But when you start thinking in another language, that’s when you know you’re getting somewhere.

I did my first two night dives about two weeks ago, and they were awesome! I’d always thought that it would be a little freaky not being able to see beyond the limit of your light, but it wasn’t. Even diving a site that you’ve been to before during the day is like diving it for the first time.

Now that I’m living in an area where I can dive whenever I want to, I’m not going to wait 14 years to progress to the next level. I’d love to make a living diving someday, so I’m going to keep progressing as aggressively as I can. My goal right now is to get as many dives as I can under my belt, and complete Rescue Diver by May 2008.

I started again. One of these days I’ll do it again.

I finally got back into the groove, and am regularly finishing books again.

It took me forever to get around to doing this, but it’s finally done!! I also got my Nitrox cert while I was at it.

At 33, to start all over, move back in with my parents, and be a full-time student is an awesome opportunity. I’m still unsure what I want to major in, but I’m sure that it will come to me. It will be strange being 15-16 years older than my classmates, but I will be able to bring 15 years of experience to the table. Having travelled so extensively, and having had the opportunity to work at the White House and for the State Department, I think I’ll have a lot to offer.

I’ve decided to go back to school full-time and will be living at my parents house while doing so. Obviously, there are downsides to these arangements, but their house is huge (43 rooms) so I can effectively store everything.

I went out and bought a ton of plastic tubs, clear so that I can see what’s in them, and can now find almost anything I need at a moments notice. I just have to make that I put things back when I’m through using them.

After taking 9-months off from work, sitting around in my dark apartment brooding over what I wanted to do, it finally came to me. It’s not exactly my true calling, but it’s such a major life event that comes pretty close.

I went to community college for one year before I went into the military, so with three years left I’m going to go back to school full-time. And while some may see this as a step backwards at the age of 34, I even moved back in with my parents. It’s close to school, and even better, it’s free. It’s strange that after travelling to 43 different countries around the globe and having only visited my parents 2 or 3 times over a six year period, this feels like home. When I think back over all of the places that I’ve lived over the past 15 years, I’ve never felt better than I have when I’m at home.

Of course, none of this would be possible if I hadn’t figured out that I’m Bipolar with ADHD features, and then suggested to him that he might just have the same. It was close, ADHD w/depression. So now that we’re both on meds and we get along great.

In reply to frustrated, it’s hard but definitely achieveable. After all of the travelling I’ve done of the past 10 years, I finally hit a breaking point and have taken the last 9 months off to try and figure what I want to do.

And since I have 3 years of school that got put on hold 15 years ago, I’m going back to school as full-time student at age 34. I’ve got until January to decide what I want to study, but I’m really excited. No more Iraq, no more Russia; basically no more anywhere. This is going to be a huge change in lifestyle, but I’m ready for it.

I guess I just burnt out on them.

I’m not sure what happened, but about a month ago I became obsessed with these Hostess Chocolate Donettes. I’m buying like six boxes at a time and eating between one and two every day. Good thing I’ve got an extremely high metabolism and can’t ever gain more than 5 lbs. or I’d be totally screwed!! But they’re sooooo good. The bad part is that they sometimes take the place of meals.

I have four or five books that I’ve read almost in their entirety, except for the last 20 or 30 pages. I’m not sure why I do this, but it seems to happen with everything I start reading lately.

I did it, but it sucked!!! But it’s been five months now, and it’s a little easier to take. I still crave it, but I can’t stand the smell. It makes me want to puke.

I have the worst insomnia, and I just would like to make it through one night without waking up 10-50 times, and get 7-hours of *ACTUAL * sleep.

• Finally, after all this time, I can sleep through the night. Of course it’s not purely natural sleep because I’m taking medication to get there, but it was hard enough to find one that worked!

In general, I laugh at things quite often. Movies, books, a few blogs….but I can’t remember the last time I shared a laugh with someone, or had another person make me laugh. I find that most of the time, the genuine laughter comes from, or is shared with, other people. But when I need a little laughter, I can usually find it here:

Fancy Robot

Girls Are Pretty

If you’ve never tried this, I must say that it’s highly enjoyable.

because you’ll never get out alive. sometimes you just need to be silly, do something crazy, and ignore the fact that everyone will probably be staring at you.

It’s just not going to happen.

We get so caught up in our daily lives that we don’t always have time to keep up with everything. The most important thing not to lose sight of is staying in touch with family and close friends, because you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow.