Kidnappings of white females make the news

I couldn't come up with a flashy title so it is what it is.

I came across this article today:
http://allspinzone.com/blog/index.php?itemid=940

And then others that go on about the same issue:
http://www.popandpolitics.com/articles_detail.cfm?articleID=1545
http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jun02/51305.asp
http://www.freep.com/news/metro/riley26_20020626.htm
http://www-cgi.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0207/24/bn.02.html

China, here I come (maybe)

Well, after two weeks (OK, fine, two years) of thinking about it, and one week of completely agonizing over it, I finally made the decision to apply again for a job teaching English in China. I turned it down two years ago and, while I don't exactly regret it, as things have turned out extremely well in the interim, I definitely need to do it now or I will regret it in the future. So, on Friday I sent my resume to my uncle's friend Jason, who has been at Jiangsu University for the past three years. I asked him to help me get an position in the spring. As soon as I sent it I started shaking and got butterflies in my stomach - but good ones, not bad ones.

I really can't wait. The absolute hardest part is going to be leaving my job and my coworkers and friends. They are all amazing, and it's not going to be easy. I know I'll start crying at some point.

Catching Up

My sister has been here for the past three weeks so I haven't had a lot of time for anything else. I'll be posting quite a bit this week about our adventures!

A word experiment

I was hoping that someone would notice and say something about the incorrect usage of the word "judicial" that I put in my blog description. The original sentence was:
'the judicial use of "no"'

It's been almost a week and no one has said anything, so I suppose I must conclude that my experiment has failed. The sentence has now been changed to the correct:
'the judicious use of "no"'

I bet I'm one of those people who, if I was interviewing someone for a job, would put a typo and/or grammatical error in the application to see if they would notice it and say something.

Tequila

Last night, I did my first shot of tequila in almost 5 years. That, cheap vodka, and jello shots were the first things I got drunk on, so I've been wary of it ever since. But I seem to have suffered no ill effects. I don't think it will become a drink of choice, but it was a sort of personal Mt. Everest for me, with Brian and Phil being the Sherpas that pointed me towards the path. I have stood on the pinnacle and looked into the abyss, and the abyss did not look back at me and cause me to vomit. What a good night.

The healing process

I spent the majority of last Saturday at a water park. I found out that this does nothing to aid the healing of recently acquired injuries. However, my bandages did stay on all day, right up until the very last slide, 15 minutes before closing time. I think the chlorine must have done some good. They're healing nicely and there's been no infection and very little pain. I did get smacked in the hand with a ping pong paddle last night, but it wasn't very hard and it didn't hurt that much. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

Pudding Wrestling

A few weeks ago, I was at a going away party for my friend Jason. After we kicked everyone's ass at Beer Pong, he challenged me to pudding wrestling. I couldn't let that pass. I thought "what's the worst that can happen? I could feel like an idiot tomorrow, or somebody might take a picture and I'll feel like an idiot for posterity. But I've never done it, and I should say yes to this." So I did. And below, boys and girls, are the two reasons that I should possibly have contemplated saying no instead of yes.


Reason #1

I'm not sorry I said yes, even though there are pictures, and I did get cut, and I did have to go to the ER and get stitches and a tetanus shot. It was an experience. And besides, how cool is that scar story?

Reason #2