My Life on the “G” List

Today’s post is dedicated to my irreplaceable friend, Stephen. I love you buddy. Seriously. Stephen was one of the first friends I made when I was new to blogging a few years ago, and since that time we’ve remained in touch off and on. We’ve never met in person, but I feel like I know so much about him and he, likewise, knows so much about me. We might be separated by miles, but love for family and friends is not diminished by distance. Thank you, Stephen, for being such an amazing friend to me…for always being there…and for the special connection we share and will always have.

Life has gotten just a bit more than crazy and hectic lately, what with work and traveling and college classes. But how about an update on me, huh? Finally? I know, right?! Well, let’s just say I am pretty stoked about the next several months. I may have mentioned it in a previous post, but after the current fall semester is over in December, I only have two more semesters (winter and spring) to finish classes for my bachelor’s degree. It has been a very long road for me to get my degree, but I know all of the hard work and perseverance will be WORTH IT!

This time next year, I intend to be living in a different part of the state. I have always liked Grand Rapids (Michigan’s second largest city) and would someday like to maybe work for the city or state government after I complete grad school. There is a great university in Grand Rapids (Grand Valley State University) that is my grad school of choice. I recently got the paperwork to apply to their graduate program and will be taking care of that early next year. Oy, so much to do and so little time to do it. Oh, and some ask…”Rob, what will your degree be in?” When I get my bachelor’s next spring, it will be in French with a history minor. I then plan to pursue a graduate degree in Public Administration. So if you were curious, now you know.

So what else is up? Oh yeah…another friggin’ birthday! It’s coming a little more quickly than I would like it to. But I guess I have no control over that. Just because I would sometimes like time to stop, I know it’s not going to. October 2 will be here soon enough…and at 4:44 p.m. (CST), I will officially be…{gulp!}…37. WTF? How did that happen? Oh well. It’s not old, so I don’t know why I get so worked up about it. I am more worried about what I’ll be facing 3 years from now… *sigh*

In other Rob news, my mom is coming for a visit to Michigan next week. I am actually going down this weekend to Illinois to travel here with her. I’ll be taking the train down Saturday and coming back with her on Sunday. I really enjoy the train. You can read, sleep, watch movies, play on your computer, have hot passionate man sex with a random hot stranger in the lavatory, you know – whatever (hehe)…and leave the driving to Amtrak. And it’s comfy to boot! It will be nice to have mom here for a week (haven’t seen her since March) and to celebrate my birthday with her. She and I and a couple of my gal pals are going to see “Mamma Mia!” on my birthday – yes, the stage version. We’ve all seen the movie, but my gal pals haven’t seen it on stage. We won’t say which time this is for me… *turns red with embarrassment* In any event, it will be a fun “girls night out!” LOL

Finally, I’ve met some really great guys…yes guys – that’s plural…over the past couple of months. It’s really cool when you can meet someone online, chat for awhile and get to know each other…then move on to phone conversations and then eventually face-to-face meetings. I don’t do it often, but recently I did with a couple of online buds. I am happy to report that both have turned out really great and it’s nice to have a couple of new great friends in my life. Oh and yes…they’re friends with benefits. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes great relationships are born from great friendships. A boy can dream I guess…

So life is good at the moment…and I am just enjoying it. Yes it gets frustrating…especially the college classes – and specifically algebra. I just despise it, I am NOT good at it, but I am DETERMINED to get through it because I have no choice. If I don’t, I won’t graduate and that is NOT an option – AT ALL! So if you hear screaming coming from the direction of Michigan, it’s probably me trying to figure out linear equations or something. Any good math people out there? Wanna be my tutor?