Twenty~Five

8:59 am. I'm getting all goofy and sentimental right now, maybe because I got four hours of sleep and just chugged a strong, nearly unpalatable cup of coffee. I feel like laughing and crying and taking a calculus test and listening to Fergie all at the same time. I'm inspired, I'm motivated, I'm grateful. There's three months left, and even though that's a long time, it doesn't seem long enough. Joining this program has made my whole world bigger. It has changed my perspective. The spots where my life used to feel limited now feel limitless. The spots where loneliness resided are filled with love. I don't know how I will be able to leave this, this hallowed experience. There is this tremendous, simple joy I feel just to know I have crossed paths with these people and will never be able to uncross them. I was listening to this Bon Iver song last night, and though usually his lyrics are a bit incoherent, one line stopped me in my tracks. "At once ...

We made it back from Vegas yesterday and I'm back in my little air force dorm room in Sacramento. I don't really have words to describe my time in Vegas, but the beauty and craziness and excitement of that city will stay with me forever. The memories I created there were some of the best of my life.  I will miss Fremont street, with its bubbling energy and flickering lights. I will miss the warm sun and the incredibly kind people we met. I will miss the fun-loving spirit the city instilled in us and how we never hesitated to go out and enjoy it. When I think back on my times there, I want to remember our smiling faces glowing in the fluorescent lights, dancing like our lives depended on it. How the Fremont Casino somehow became our refuge, where we would smuggle in cheap beer and tell each other secrets and invent songs and hide from security because they knew us as regular loiterers there. My heart now holds warm memories of late night Evel Pie pizza, live music at Containe...