Specifically, I finally graduated, and now I’m getting ready to embark on a more serious career, which is actually what sparked my interest in firing up WordPress again and putting down my thoughts. (Hi, HR people!) I won’t name names of places I’m applying for now, for various reasons, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at some of the responses I’ve received, and the salary offerings so far — as a journalism major, I thought my life path was pretty well set: do what I love, but be broke as hell doing it. I will say that there are specific areas I’m interested in (Boston, NYC, Seattle), and the most promising responses are out of Boston and NYC so far. No matter what career path I choose, I feel a bit like I’m delaying our dreams of making it to France eventually (which I think I mentioned in my last post), but I’m excited to take my first steps toward a meaningful career, and I think for now the benefits outweigh the negatives.

Last October, Ivona and I were on our honeymoon in Antalya, Turkey, sitting in a faux Parisian café in our resort, and we made the decision to move to France. We busted out the laptop, spent hours looking into everything from the cost of housing in Aix-en-Provence (the city I used to live in) to claiming my French citizenship. We had just had our second wedding in Bulgaria, and our first honeymoon now that we could finally afford one, and it seemed fitting that we made the decision to go there together, something we had talked about as early as our first date. It was a definite motivator to finish up this year and get my degree, and it was one of the things keeping me from shooting myself at the though of another 80-100 hours a week driving a cab this summer, but as we got closer to leaving Northampton to head to the Vineyard, and looked at the costs of going to France, I realized that working another menial labor job for three intense months with no semblance of a life was the last thing in the world I wanted to do. Besides, with the US immigration process being the beast that it is, things will be easier later on for us anyway.

We’re coming up on our two year anniversary, which means that aside from the horrors of just dating me, she’s endured two years of matrimonial unbliss, including my video gaming habit and constant dick jokes (not really — I’m highbrow! No, really). I know everyone says it, but I really can’t believe it has been this long. Luckily for us, we still have the same opinion of marriage that we started out with: our relationship really hasn’t changed because of the rings on our fingers, and we don’t “feel” any more married than when it first happened — which is to say we still think getting married makes more of a difference to everyone around us than it does to us. Hell, we still sometimes feel weird referring to “my wife,” or “my husband.”

Anyway, sorry to make such a rambling, newsy update with not much substance, but I had to break back into it and I’m sure some family and friends who read this will want to get an update on what’s going on. Hopefully I’ll be back on a more regular update schedule, so keep checking.

Anyway, I was supposed to be graduating, and I sort of freaked about the fact that I didn’t have a job lined up, didn’t have any money, felt like I had no prospects, etc. Now that I feel like I have a little more time, I don’t feel the pressure quite as strong as I did before, but it’s still there and I can’t help but be stressed out about it, even if it’s a sort of subconscious, subtle stress. I don’t sit here freaking about it, but it’s always lingering in the back of my mind.

Currently, Ivona and I are searching for not one, but two apartments; one on the Vineyard for the summer so we can work down there, and one in Amherst for the fall; and we’re potentially buying a used car that we found a pretty good deal for. I’m looking forward to that change, of getting out of Amherst, of having some money again, and I feel like I’m sort of sitting here waiting for that to happen. I’m almost looking forward to the insane work schedule (probably going to average 14 hours a day, seven days a week), because I know I do best when I’m constantly moving and doing things. Part of what got me into this rut is sitting around so much and not doing anything. Vicious cycle. I’m in a rut because I’m not doing anything, and I’m not doing anything because I’m in a rut.

Alex and I had a brainstorming session a couple weeks ago to work on a screenplay. We’re developing a story I had very roughly sketched out, coupled with a general theme that has been bothering both of us lately and that Alex pretty neatly summed up with the term “quarter-life crisis.” We’ll see how it goes, if it does, but lately I’ve been more and more thinking that I want to write a version of the story on my own, maybe in book form. It has less to do with my feelings about how a screenplay written with my brother would turn out, because I think we could do some great work together, and more to do with the feeling that I really want to accomplish something on my own. I feel like not many things are turning out the way I want them to, and if I really want to be a writer, I need to take it seriously and do it.

I guess that’s the state of affairs right now in my world. If any of you have some great tip or secret to getting your life back on track, please share.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has identified two probable cases at Amherst College that have not yet been confirmed by the Center for Disease Control. Amherst College is taking precautions, including cancelling social gatherings and treating four other recent cases of flu as if they were also swine flu. Those students are being isolated, treated, and expected to make a full recovery.

“None of the students’ cases are considered serious and all are responding well to treatment,” said Amherst College president Anthony Marx. “The College is, however, taking a series of steps… to contain the virus and to protect our community.”

No cases have been reported at UMass so far, though they are preparing for potential illnesses. Anyone experiencing fever greater than 100 degrees F, sore throat, cough, stuffy nose, chills, headache, body aches and/or fatigue is asked to seek medical attention immediately.

Edit: For the lolz (thanks BoingBoing)

I also found my old moleskine notebooks that are filled with great little notes I can expand on for material. Expect it to be a good weekend content-wise, which should make up for last night and tonight. Ivona gave me a good piece of advice on writing tonight, although it’s something I knew intuitively but was trying to ignore; I’m not giving this blog the time it deserves. I may be forcing myself to write every day, but that doesn’t mean anything if I’m writing at 10 or 11 pm every night just rushing something out there so I don’t have to pay one of you goons five dollars.

Boring post is boring. Better ones tomorrow.

Anyway, I exported this particular article in PDF format, so I’ll just link it here instead of copy/pasting it. Keep in mind it’s from 6 years ago, when I was 18, and it’s the only sports article I’ve ever written. I didn’t expect the first article I’d write for a major newspaper would be a sports article, but hey, it’s still a proud accomplishment.

Enjoy.

In other news, I had to get a shot of cortisone directly into the bottom of my foot. I have a (fairly common) tissue buildup along a ligament that runs the length of the foot, and this should break it up. Despite the freezey shit the doctor sprayed on, when he jammed that needle in, it was the most excrutiating pain of my life. The best part is, I have to get 3-5 more shots, once a week for the next 3-5 weeks. Oh, and I have to have oral surgery to remedy an issue going on in that area, too. The doctor assured me that a biopsy is just standard procedure but he’s 99.9% sure it’s not an issue. Fun shit.

So, since lack of motivation has always been the barrier that keeps me from accomplishing what I should easily be able to, I’ve decided to force myself into it. From now on, if I haven’t made a post by 2 am following any given day, I’ll pay whoever emails me at drew@riverhed.com pointing that out five dollars. Granted, that’s not a lot right now, but it’s incentive to get more people to come here and more importantly more incentive for me to make sure I post.

I had actually told Ivona this yesterday, and insisted that yesterday was going to be the day I kick things off. Which means I owe her five dollars (and believe me, she didn’t waste any time sending off emails and text messages informing me of this).

As far as the specifics go, I did 2 am instead of midnight because sometimes I work late. And it’s for 24-hour period of time, not necessarily calendar day. So if I post at 10 pm on the 12th, and not again until 1 am on the 14th, it doesn’t count (since it resets at 2 am, so it’s still in the 13th’s timeframe). Just wanted to get that out of the way so people don’t try to fuck me over on this. Oh, and you need PayPal to receive the money.

Anyway, it’s late now or I’d post more about what’s going on around here lately. Check back tomorrow for news.