Blah Blah...irrelevant.

Ok as important as it is to write some sort of general update- I'm not going to right now. However I do have quite the story. Once I sit down in San Fran (where we will finally arrive Tuesday), you will hear all about driving through the Rockies, Rach's unfortunate altitude sickness, her spider bit thats eating away her leg, almost hitting two cows with our car and other things. But for now, at this moment, there is something that I must tell you immediately. So, we arrived in L.A last night around 7pm. Christina wouldn't be home until around 9 from work so we stopped to grab a bite to eat...blah blah blah...irrelevant. Fast forward, Christina comes home, we sit and chat for fifteen minutes and we decide to go out so Christina can get some dinner. We decide to walk to the strip in her neighborhood with all the restaurants. We're walking...the neighborhood is fantastic...blah blah blah...irrelevant. We get to the place Christina had in mind and she stops outside the door. 'I don't want to go here anymore' she says. Okay. 'I think we should go to this restaurant over here'. She turns around and goes through some alley and cafe we hadn't even seen at first. A beautiful restaurant dining room appears in front of us. Coincidentally, the restaurant is called "Cafe Stella". The name of my restaurant in Denver! Lovely fact, however...blah..this fact is irrelevant. We approach the hostess and say we'd like to eat and have a drink. She takes the three of us to a table where Christina sits across from Rachel and I. After I settle down in my seat I looked up to Christina who all of a sudden had a big "secret secret" look on her face and she was leaning forward slightly to be sure that no one could hear her. 'Did you guys notice who's behind me?'. Neither of us had. We looked up and over Christina. They're was a cute baby hanging over a woman's shoulder. We smiled. We like babies. 'Aw, what a cute baby.' We say. Chistina swilveled in her chair to see the baby. She tells us, no, that's not who she meant. 'Oh.' We scan the room. I saw him first. He was sitting with a woman at a two top (a two person table) and was facing us. He was wearing skinny jeans, a plain gray tee-shirt, and a red wool hat that seemed more fitted for winter than L.A in May. He was chatting with a woman with a full head of redish purpley, beautiful, curely hair. We'd been in L.A maybe three hours at this point and what are the odds that out of all the celebrities walking around this city....this is who is sitting only feet away from us. I'll give you a moment to guess. .............. ............ .............Can you guess? Out of all the celebrities! Who is sitting next to us? You need more time? ..................... Micheal Cera! Micheal freakin Cera! My twin! I can't possibly tell you how often I hear I look like him. Almost at least once a day. We respected his privacy and never approached him. Even on his way out. The table next to us asked him for a picture which he was very nice about. You could tell though, that he wished they wouldn't have asked. I had day dreams throughout dinner of him approaching me instead saying "hey! you know you look just like me!". I would smile and tell him that he was mistaken. It was actually he who looked like me and we would have a laugh, take a picture together and be lifelong friends who look very much alike. The three of us tried to chat about normal things but kept getting distracted by my dopelganger in the bright red hat. Thankfully, he left about ten or fifteen minutes after we got there so we could gain back our focus. I wonder if he noticed at all that I looked like him (since everyone else does), but I'd bet he didn't. The best part is that on our way out Christina caught the conversation of a few men standing outside. They were I guess talking about how Micheal Cera had been in the restaurant. We walked by them since they were standing by the door. The last thing Christina caught of the conversation was "Oh, look, he's back! Oh, wait, thats not him.". Today we went on a pretty hike. Although compared to last night and the run in with my famous twin...thats pretty irrelevent. -lj

good byes and good times

We're finally in the same car! Once again a one car family. We left Buffalo yesterday and spent the night with Kate and Kate in Lancaster, Penn. The stars aligned and they "cut" someone today from Kate's job at the rec center so she gets to spend the whole day with us! Turns out, they have a Wii so guess what we've been doing for hours? Just out of the shower and she's taking us to see the outlets in a few minutes. I'm going to have to test my will power and walk through an American Eagle. I DO need a new white tee and jeans, but we'll see what kind of deals we find. Responsible shopping is the name of the game until we get jobs in San Fran. After the outlets we're getting back into our million pound car that feels like a tank and driving forty minutes to Harrisburg where more Popson family visits will occur. Aunt Peggy and Uncle Jims is always a great time. It's become an Easter tradition that we look forward to. And we also get to see Stephy who just flew in from L.A. It's also the NFL playoffs and the Buffalo Sabers have their fourth game today against Philly. I don't really watch hockey but when you have a team to root for in the playoffs it's a blast. In Harrisburg we shall stay until Monday morning. We realized this morning that the trip to Ohio is actually twice as long as we for some reason thought it was going to be so we'll have to wake up early so we can spend some decent time with my Americorps teammate Joni. It's been a few weeks shy of a year since I've seen her and I must say, I'm rather excited- I don't want to get there too late. I've been missing Florida. I miss coming home at 11 and sitting on the patio with Chris and Charlie for hours. I hate the "goodbye" part of adventure. It's so hard. Now in a few hours I have to say goodbye to Kate again. Whenever I'm around her I realize how I actually miss her even more than I thought I did- and I already thought I missed her a lot. I know the same is going to happen with Christina. This lifestyle is great but all this saying goodbye all the time really blows. Kate is starting nursing school soon and found a great school and program in the area which means this might be somewhere we'll have to look into settling down in. At least while I go to school. It's a good distance from home too, which is a plus. I'll have to look into this. Pretty nice that I can use Kate as a nursing school test rabbit and send her through first (especially if she has to buy the books first, mwahahaha). I'm blogging because the beautiful girls I'm with are busy doing they're hair. They've teamed up to try and convince me to wear make-up today. Out of their minds. We're having such a great time so far. I'm freezing though. All the time. I miss the sun and warm weather. My tan left my skin so fast you'd never think I've ever even been to Florida in my life. I'll have to take some advantage of being a mile closer to the sun in Denver. Man are we excited for Denver! Every once in a while Rach and I will just look at each other and smile. We know we're both thinking the same thing........... our life is awesome. -lj

Wiiiiiiiiiiii

So far so good. We're having fun in Buffalo despite the fact that its mid April and its been snowing. We've actually been lying lower than usual which I'm obviously all for. I made traditional Magnetti gravy last night for the family and some friends. (Basically my family's spaghetti with meat sauce). It came out surprisingly delicious. I was nervous because it was my first time cooking it without being under the strict supervision of my mother. Everyone loved it and it felt amazing to bring a piece of my home into this one. The whole house smelled just like mine for a good 5 hours. Tonight we're going out to dinner with Rachel's friend Tim and his girlfriend. Tomorrow we're going out with the family to watch the Sabers fourth playoff game (hockey). During the days we've been playing with the Wii fitness nintendo game. You stand on a board and you work out with different games on the tv screen. The board can sense how well you're doing your workout. The board will then tell you your "fitness age" according to the data it's calculated during a few fitness tests the game puts you through. All the tests have to do with balance. According to the Wii fitness, my physical fitness age is 39 years old. Thirty Nine. I did the test twice to make sure. The second time it said 38. I'm 25! I'm supposed to be at my prime age and this nintendo equipment has scientifically calculated that I'm 14 years older than what I should be. Doesn't it know I get carded for Rated R movies? Actually, come to think of it, I did see a lot of 39 years olds at the finish line of the TRIATHLON I did two years ago. ....stupid game. -lj

fluffy towels

I bought a Yankee Candle car freshener for the Honda today.  Fluffy Towels.  Tomorrow at around 9am I'll get into my fluffy flavored car and for the fourth time say goodbye to my house for, what is for me, an extended period of time.  Tomorrow I'll take a solo drive to Buffalo where Rachel has already been since yesterday.  The drive should take me around six hours.  I'm excited to see my other family (the Popsons) but always get very sad to leave this one.  Especially knowing how far I will be going.  It will officially be the farthest I've ever been from home.  

 I already miss Florida and everyone in it. I miss my coworkers and my friends.  I even sometimes think of some of my regulars from the restaurant and wonder how they're doing.  Goodbye's are always far less dramatic than I picture them to be and Florida goodbyes were no exception.  Not any less sad- just less dramatic.  We were going to stop at the beach and dramatically say goodbye to the ocean, but when the hour came we decided it was unnecessary.  We even canceled our plans to go give Patte one last Cheerio.  At the last minute we decided this idea was also over the top and the memory of our duck friend would be enough to sustain us. Besides, we didn't have any Cheerios.    It was also not so dramatic leaving Jupiter since we only drove a few hours north to visit Rachel's friend Heather in Tampa. Goodbye Florida! We'll miss you! Oh....hello again Florida.  Tampa was a great time.  We sat in Heather's living room and caught up then went out dinner at a restaurant on the water.  I wasn't feeling well that night so I sadly had to stay in while everyone went out to see a band.  We had to wake up early the next day and face our longest drive of the week to Atlanta and I didn't want to risk getting sick.  The next morning we woke up, almost on time, and finally said goodbye to Florida.  The trip to Atlanta was like pulling teeth.  Teeth we desperately needed in order to enjoy our first Top Chef dinner ever.  We thought the ride was going to take between 7 to 8 hours.  It took 10.  Also, don't forget we both have cars still and had to do this on our own.  We hit about four pockets of serious traffic.  Thankfully, the restaurant had no problem moving up our reservation to later.  We were exhausted.  Dinner was fun.  It could have been very fun.  The food was good. We probably could have enjoyed it more.  It was very unfortunate but I'm still glad we got to go.  I couldn't stop thinking of the pillows at the hotel the whole time which I wish wasn't the case.  Atlanta seemed pretty cool but no exploration was done.  After dinner we went straight home and went to sleep.  The next day we arrived at cousins Lindsey's and James' house around 2.  They greeted us on the lawn with baby Brayson and dog Broker.  They had just bought property and wanted to take us to see it.  We went for a very uphill hike with Brayson on Lindsey's back to see the property and then sat by the lake to drink a beer and throw rocks into the water.  It was so nice being in the mountains again.  Later, more family came over and we made dinner and I spent the night blowing bubbles so Brayson could run through them, laughing hysterically.  He was always brave when one accidentally popped in his eye.  I asked Lindsey if I could have him but unfortunately for me, she said no. Fortunately for you, the adventure continues.  Day four after breakfast we climbed back in our cars (which both smelled like Wendys at this point) and drove to Charlottesville, Virginia to visit Lindsey's sister Andrea and her husband BJ.  They immediately took us to Dave Matthews Wine Vinyard for a wine tasting.  It was beautiful and the wine was actually very very good.  They told us that this part of the Virginia is becoming the Napa of white wine.  The whole area was gorgeous and wasn't at all what we expected from Virginia.  The downtown, we were shocked to find, was actually somewhere that seemed...ideal for us to live.  It was young, artsy, packed with restaurants, super clean, surrounded by farms and vinyards, full of places to hike and then beach is two hours away.  If this adventure goes past San Fran, Charlottesville, Virginia now stands as a strong contender for destination number five.  Virginia.... who knew.  We were supposed to visit Kate and Kate in Penn. the next day but Kate #1 was feeling under the weather so we decided to make the final push towards Monroe and surprise my family by arriving a day early.  Six hours later I walked into my house to find my mom making homemade Chicken Soup over the stove.  We've spent the past week relaxing, losing every inch of tan we had, watching Real Housewives with my mom and eating. Eating a lot.  My mom let me make the gravy (meat sauce) and meatballs while she supervised.  It came out great and I plan on making it for Rach's family this week.  I got to see Nicole, Aunt Jackie, Grandma, Aunt Judy and Donnie.  I love my family.  We went into the city on the one super sunny day we had and squeezed about ten friends into one day.  It's been really nice to be home, especially for so long.  We really get the best of both worlds whenever we come to New York.  In Monroe we wear slippers and in Buffalo we wear party hats.  Tomorrow my slippers come off.  Oh also... we're not homeless!  It just so happens that my good friend Linda lives in San Fran.  It also just so happens that one of her roommates is moving out of his room on May 1st and her and her roommate Robin need to fill it.  We just have to go through a credit check with the landlord which should be no problem.  We're still going to wait to get there till around May tenth or eleventh though.  Funny how things always just seem to work out.  I have a lot, a lot,  A LOT to be thankful for and to look forward to.  But tonight...tonight I'm going to enjoy my slippers. -lj

nplh

I don't even know where to start. We didn't really have access to the internet on our roadtrip so a lot happened without being able to update. We left West Palm/Jupiter April 1st. My goodbye to Charlie and Chris in the parking lot at 9 am was a very sad and hard one. The hardest yet. It's much harder to say goodbye to someone when you have no idea when you'll see them again. Oh my...I just learned that Rachel has been waiting for me to watch a movie. I will tell all about our Florida to New York trip soon. I promise. We got home to Monroe yesterday evening and I gotta say, cold hands aside....there's no place like home. -lj

friends

I just have to say quick that I'm going to miss my people here very much. Very Very much. -lj

Nine days

One week from Friday. Nine more days. Nine more days to make as much money as we can. Nine more days to tell everyone around us how much we've appreciated their kindness. Nine more days to realize that we better start packing soon. Nine more days to stand along the beach. We're very very excited. We've been searching craigslist for possible sublets, making budgets, booking hotels and planning food and family stops. I honestly think this is our favorite part of adventure. It's so much fun to look forward to a huge change. And this one is going to be very big. And long. I have to say, we're indulging in this move quite a bit. Here's a rundown of our itinerary-

We leave Jupiter the 1st to spend the night in Tampa with some of Rach's highschool pals (whom I've met several times). One of them is expected to go into labor during this time so... watch for that post. Then we leave the next day for Atlanta, GA. We can't make our days as long on this trip because now we have two cars and can't split driving duties. We'll stay in a hotel in Atlanta and have reservations at Woodfire Grill. There we will be doing the tasting menu served by Top Chef finalist Kevin. Las Vegas season. I'll try to write down the dishes so I can tell you about them afterward and we can all judge them together! Next day its on to Tennessee to visit Rachel's cousins and finally meet new baby Brason (who I guess isn't so new anymore). The next day its on to more cousins in Virginia. Next day is a long push up to Lancaster, Penn where we'll stay with Kate and Kate. If its really late and we know they're sleeping and we have left over energy, we might push it a few more hours and make it to Monroe. I absolutely cannot wait for Monroe. I'm so homesick (as usual). I seriously need a family reboost. After about a week in Monroe, we head West for a week in B-Lo (Buffalo......duh). After a week of light partying (yea right), we're going to stuff all our things into the Honda and together, head to Harrisburg, Penn for a few days (Popsons are coming too). We've tried to make a habit of going there for Easter and we're afraid if we stop the tradition the Easter Bunny may not know where to go. The day after Easter we'll set back on the same route we took to Denver a year ago- since thats where we're going. How can we drive out to California without stopping in Denver for some fresh mountain air! If you've just joined the blog- first of all, welcome. I'll go over our "Denver" route. First we stop in Wilmington, Ohio for a night to visit Americorps teammate Joni. The next night is in Grosse Point, MI with Americorps team leader Emily. A night at a hotel is Chicago is necessary because...c'mon...Chicago's cool! Then its a huge long push past all the corn in America until we get to Denver. We've chosen to stay a mile high for about a week. So many people to see and dogs to hug. Denver carries such a different "home" feel than Boston or Jupiter has. Denver is.... Denver. If I had to choose right now where I wanted to settle, I wouldn't have to think about it. Hands down, Denver. I told Rachel I was going to tie myself to a tree when we got there so that we couldn't leave. I'm still seriously considering the idea. We plan on leaving Denver May 5th. Depending on how much money we've spent, we might stop in Las Vegas. Might as well try to get that money back, right? We might also stay in a hotel in between Denver and Vegas so we have time to check out the Grand Canyon. We also might then just stop in Vegas to look around and head right back out and into Cali. First night in California will be spent with sister Stephanie just a little south of L.A. Then a few days in L.A with best friends Christina and Alex. Then on the 12thish (depending on whatever we set up as a living situation) we take a beautiful, relaxing nine hour drive along the coast of California and arrive in San Fran to start our new life....again. That's a month and a half of pure adventure. Followed by more adventure. Wouldn't you be impatiently counting down? ..... Nine Days. -lj

relapse

Rachel and I spoke with the doctor yesterday. Turns out our adventure bug had only gone into remission. We started feeling symptoms again about a week ago. We both started feeling restless at first. Then we slowly started realizing that the sight of a palm tree was no longer exciting- it was common. Rachel had noticed a strange taste in the back of her throat. I wasn't aware of it at first but I realized that I was experiencing the same thing. We tried to drink some water. The taste just got stronger. Florida water is disgusting, with a sewer bouquet and afternotes of poo. We put down our glasses when it dawned on us. - We haven't tried a new food in months besides the blue fish we completely destroyed that day we went fishing. What was happening to us? How did we come to this? This wasn't us. We're foodies damnit. Three stops? Really? We throw our lives into a car, sell all our stuff, quit our jobs, paint that apartment back to white and come running back after only three stops? What kind of book can I write with that!? A short one. Too short for us. We've been lazy adventurers - must be all the sun. Time to pour the sand out of our shoes and hit the road. We're leaving Florida April first. We have Rach's grandmothers car on loan still and need to give it back. Besides we're desperately home sick. We'll drive both cars up to New York within four or five days stopping to see family and friends on the way. A week in Monroe, a week in Buffalo, Easter in Harrisburg with Rach's family and then we stuff all our things back into the Honda, put a flower in our hair, and head to San Francisco. Everyone we've met on this trip has asked the same thing. Are you going to San Francisco. Apparently everyone pegs us as future San Franciscans. Unlike Boston and Florida, this stop is actually a candidate for the "settle down" city. Denver may still be in the running as well. New York is also on the list. Speaking of Denver, we absolutely plan on stopping to visit on our drive over. We'll also stop in L.A to visit Christina and other friends. It's hard to move to the same state as your best friend but to a different city. It's just that neither of us think we would like L.A. Also, L.A right after southern Florida seems like a lot of superficiality all packed into six months. We're in the mood for some culture, some art, lots of good food and good people. Not to mention one of the best gay communities in the world. So no one panic. Keep up on the blog and readjust your clocks - time for another countdown. -lj

itsy bitsy

Usually I have pretty decent stories to tell about all our exciting activities and unlikely run-ins with strangers. We both work about six nights a week so we really don't have anything out of the ordinary to blog about. However, I do have something that happened to me the other night that I think can be universally enjoyed and I thought I'd share it with you. As you know know, I now live in West Palm Beach. This makes my commute to work somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes depending on traffic and how badly I don't feel like driving. Well two nights ae ago, I was driving home from work at night. I was alone, I was tired and I was annoyed that my long drive had only just begun. About five minutes into the drive I noticed my eyes were detecting movement on a "closer focus area" than my regular driving eyes. I narrowed in my pupils to get a closer look and there it was. A spider moving across my windsheild. The inside of my windsheild. I now my mother knows, but to inform you more clearly...I do not like spiders. I shudder at the thought of one. Everything about them freaks me out. More information about me is that I try as hard as I can not to kill bugs. Even ones that make me want to pee myself. I will kill something if I think it can hurt me. Like a bee, or a mosquito. But I try very hard to resist killing things out of pure fear- thats just not fair. But back to the drive. It was a small spider. Brown and skinny and scary. Worst of all, it was fast. My eyes widened and my hands tightened on the wheel and I tried to balance the task of driving safely and keeping an eye on my new passenger. The road I was on was a 45 mph three lane road and I couldn't let this get out of control. I switched the focus of my eyes every few seconds. Close, far. Close, far. Close far. Close.....where did it go? Far. Close...holy crap, where is it!? My eyes darted all over the car. Keep in mind, its nighttime to boot and I couldn't barely see in the car anyway. Every mile or so there would be a light. If it was red, I would stop and panic. Frantically searching. It's on me. I know it. It's crawling down my neck. It just bit me, I felt it! I smacked frantically at neck, rubbed my head like a scrach off ticket because surely it was making a nest in my hair. Green light. Far. I took deep breaths. I reminded myself that there's probably spiders in my car all the time, I just happened to see this one. Things were going to be fine. I was getting to the highway- the half way point. About 15 minutes left to the drive. I got on the ramp and merged onto the I-95 South towards West Palm Beach. Far. Far. Close. There it was. In the same route he was going before. Left to right. Directly in front of me. How did he get back to left without me seeing him! I gripped the wheel. Now I was on a highway. I focused in and out trying to hold on to him this time. I picked up a piece of paper that was laying in my passenger seat. Should I kill it?? It hasn't done anything to me! If I can just get home I can brush it out of the car. If I kill it, I know I'll feel guilty. I sat ready with the paper, waiting for the little monster to make its move. It's just waiting to jump off the window onto my face, I know it! Close, far. Should I do it? It's wrong! Close, far. Close...its gone. No! I lost him again! Why did I hesitate?! Now I also knew that he could move closer to me without my knowing. He'd done it before, he'll do it again. He's just hangin out on windsheild. It's ok. He doesn't want anything to do with you. He just like the windsheild. About another two miles passed. I searched, rubbed my head, slapped my neck, wiped my face...how did it get in my shoe!? He seemed to be crawling everywhere on my body. In my ear, up my nose, over my eyebrow. Where did it go?! Movement. On the windsheild again. This time higher. I had visions of him crawling onto the ceiling and dropped down onto my face. I grabbed my paper. Stay where you are or you're gonna get it! He moved higher. I stood my ground. He disappeared into the shadow above me. No, no, no! Thats the worst place you could go! I'm not killing you, please don't hurt me! I shrank down into my seat and tried to watch above my head. I realized I had shot down to fifty five miles an hour trying to drive safe when I should be gunning it home. I obviously wasn't going to kill it so what I needed was safety. I leaned into the gas. My goal now was to just get home. He reappeared on the windsheild and moved the right. Phew. He was now probably somewhere on the passenger side. But now I remembered. A few days ago my car was hit while it was parked outside Rachel's house. The women who hit me is paying for it, but my door was hit in such a way where I can't open in. I've been crawling across the car coming in and out through the passenger side. I'd have to crawl right past the spider. I finally pulled into my parking spot at home. I turned the car off and hit the dome light. Shrunken into my seat I searched the car. Just go for it. I eyed my path across the car. Just go. Fast. I flung myself across the car and leaped out, shutting the door behind me. I shook myself frantically. Was it on me. After I stopped jumping around I reached into my pocket so text Rachel. My pocket was empty. I knew it immediatly. My heart sank and I lifted my eyes to look through my passenger window at the driver door. My phone was sitting in the driver door pocket. Remember now that my driver door is broken. I'd have to crawl back through the passenger side to get it. I wanted to cry. I took a deep breath, opened the door and dived for my phone. I slammed it shut and did my "shaking off the spider" dance again. I looked back in the car. No. I didn't. ..... I did. The dome light was still on. I had to laugh this time. I repeated my dive and dance. I ran inside my house, into the bathroom and carefully inspected myself in the mirror. No spider. I haven't seen it since. I'm just hoping that the morning heat killed it. I haven't found a body. I cleaned out my car today and even took it to be vaccum it. I'm so glad I didn't kill it. All in all I think I handled it well. -lj

happy love day

Ok ready? Set... go... Rach and I kept fighting and fighting so we decided on a split. We had two weeks left in the condo together and fought less but hung on to our decision. Two weeks were up and Rach's parents drove a car down so now she has her own car. Rachel moved in a friend of a friend in Jupiter and I moved in with my new good pal Chris, a girl from my job. I live in West Palm Beach and am now the world's fourth largest contributer to the process of warming our planet. I live with Chris and her boyfriend of five years Charlie. I love them dearly and think of them, especially Chris, as a blessing. I don't know what I would have done without them. After a few days of sleeping alone in my new bed I realized that my decision (as usual when I make big decisions), was the wrong one. At that time the standing of the relationship was not broken up, but barely seeing or talking so we could "figure things out". I realized after talking to some dear friends (christina and kate) that our lifestyle had made it impossible for Rachel and I to have time for establishing individual lives and were therefore, smothering eachother and the relationship which was now on its way to disappearing. I wasn't having it. I made Rach go on a date with me and took her to the beach and to see the rehabiliting sea turtles (which was awesome). I put on my most charming smile and explained what I believed had gone wrong and how we could fix it. After lots of charming smiles which I'm sure got pathetic after five minutes she started smiling back. Long story short, we love each other very much and are enjoying having date nights and re-establishing romance. (Charming smile gets em every time). Unfortunatly, my new home does not have internet and has seperated me from my blog. I'm sorry. This time it is not my fault. Rachel and I are sorting out plans at this point to move back in together (hopefully she can come live with me, gotta talk to Charlie) in March. We're staying another month and are deciding, unfortunatly, how to round up our adventures to a close. As fun as it is, the freedom of the road, we've learned, actually offers little freedom and we are starting to look at a "larger plan". One that involves careers, benifits, family and vacations. One that is going to start out of course with school, long hours and lots of of work. Right now we're probably heading back to NY in April, staying in Monroe for a month while we re-establish jobs in the city and decide on new degree paths. There is some talk of one last adventure to California but financially, this might not be the smartest decision. We will see how things go. Rachel's chef Eddie is opening a restaurant on the Jersey Shore over the summer and has been relentless in asking us to there promising we will make more money than we ever will any summer of our lives. This is also an idea we're throwing around. I'll try to visit my local Panera Bread more often and update you more. I know I say that all the time. When all is said and done at the end of this "break", it was the best thing for us that we could have done. We're very happy and have a renewed appreciation for eachother and a new respect for our relationship. Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. Think about everyone you love today and ask yourself if you've been taking it for granted. -lj