Blah, blah, excuses, blah, blah, lazy...

What the...? I haven't updated this since St. Patrick's Day? I must suck, or something.

Truth be told, I've been pretty active since mid-March. I've been working a lot. I've been playing WoW and D&D with all my friends back in Milwaukee a lot. I've been reading a lot. I've been...well, actually, that pretty much sums up the stuff I've been doing a lot.

Something that I haven't been doing a lot is just plain relaxing. Don't get me wrong--I have my hobbies and my free time is my own and I enjoy myself--but leveling a Night Elf Druid up to 60 could be considered work, while Jack Miles' God: A Biography, pleasurable, moving and spiritually enlightening read that it is, could hardly be considered a brain-vacation. Add to this the fact that my work schedule now encompasses 6 of any given 7 days in a week and I think you'd agree that I was in dire need of some well-deserved R&R.

So, last week I took a vacation. And this time, I didn't just hole up in my apartment and pretend that reality stopped at the door, as I'm so wont to do. Nope. This time I took a vacation...and I got the hell out of town.

I really can't fully express how fantastic my vacation was! My first stop was good ol' Aiken, where I'd lived for 10 years. (And, yes...if you're counting, that's the longest I've ever lived anywhere in my entire life!) While there I stayed with my friends Chris & Kate and their wonderful daughter Ash. I hadn't seen any of them since I'd moved to Milwaukee back in August of 2002, so I spent a long while visiting with them, reading Chris's extensive library of D&D books, hanging out, talking and becoming enamored with Ash, who is easily the smartest and most creative five-year-old I've ever met. I also spent some time just driving around Aiken, seeing how much (or little, really) the town has changed. I have to tell you that being around close friends in a familiar and comfortable environment is so relaxing that cheesy phrases like "balm for the soul" spring to mind with such force that it takes an effort of will not to use them earnestly, eagerly and repeatedly.

Anyway, that was late Friday night until early Thursday morning. Thursday morning I...went to work.

No...wait. I didn't go to work. Why did I write that?

Oh! I know why. I wrote that not because I went to work, but because I have to go to work right now! Silly me.

Anyway, I'm back and my Southeastern odyssey isn't even close to done. So, stay tuned for the rest of my vacation travelogue. I'll post it tomorrow night. Until then, take care.