Alright kids, I think I am hitting the road for a spell and then may be be home in a few

Do you like how vague I made that? A "spell," "in a few" neither of those terms can be tied to anything close to a definite time period. What if I said a coon's age? Also without meaning and potentially racist? I don't know.

(click to zoom)

I ain't a planner, I'm just a nomadic traveler. Did the indians who crossed the land bridge from Asia to North America have a plan? Nope, let's just chase these buffalos and see where we end up. That being said, I think the plan is to head west up through Rosario and Cordoba and then over to Mendoza. It's 600 miles to Mendoza. In my mind that is really far but after consulting my map and drawing the route (pictured above) it really doesn't look like much. I'm traveling with my friend Maggie and her two friends who I tried to break the ice with via my Red Sox silly band collection that my mom sent me. I was hoping to have a travel jorts making session as a means of a team building exercise before we left, however, I knew that wasn't likely to happen when Maggie asked me, "what are jorts?" (I actually kind of really just wanted to make jorts so I could explain that I have a friend Joe, who flew to close to the sun and instead of cutting his jeans into shorts actually cut them into a jean skirt . . . and then wore it around for the day anyway.)

The plan is when I get to Mendoza to talk to the American vineyard people who I kind of phone interviewed with to see if they can offer me some kind of employment. My phone interview kind of didn't go so well because when they asked me what I knew about wine and could offer them all I could do was launch into the finer points of Slap the Bag.

(If they had boxed wine questions I could tell them when in doubt when selecting what type of boxed wine you want to pay the extra 15 cents and spring for the pour spout, especially if you plan on preparing some can wine. And yes, I chose that Termidor Vino Blanco due to the shiny nature of the box. Well played Termidor, well played indeed.)

One of the problems I am anticipating is that I don't plan on bringing any nice clothes, ie. slacks, dress shoes, a tie because it would be pretty silly to lug it all around to use it once. I guess all just kill them with my devastating good looks and charm. Or just solve a rubix cube on their desk if one is available (I could strangely sees things going in a direction like that). I also know that one of them is a Patriots fan from Melrose so I am bringing my Patriots boxers. That will surely be a strange moment when I try to nonchalently flash my boxers. Bend and snap maybe??


So with that being said I am saying good-bye to Buenos Aires indefinitely . . . maybe for good. I've got to pack up my stuff and put it in a safe place that is still TBD and could be difficult to find considering a few days ago someone robbed 97 safe deposit boxes at a bank. I had some decent times in the apt and a lot of down time. A lot of good skype convos came from that very throne that is pictured below, those of you on the receiving end know who you are and shall remain nameless. (Also, note the plethora of French magazines jammed behind the radiator, she must drop some monsters if she needs that much reading material.***)

*** There should be a symbol for "crossed the line" that way I could just insert it at the end of a sentence like the one above. I'm thinking something in the vain of "nullset," the circle with the slash through it. Annddd I think I know how to make a ghetto version of it: O. It's moments like these that must make my parents so proud.

To sum up my time in Buenos Aires and put it bluntly, it hasn't been the easiest. There's been a lot of frustration and a lot of alone time. Unfortunately Democracia Global wasn't really all it was cracked up to be and to top it off yesterday I emailed the Diputado Nacional that I see and work with on a regular basis asking for a recommendation to share with the vineyard in Mendoza and in response he said if I write it, he'll send it from his email account to them. Gee thanks. After giving you four months of my time to help with your projects it would be nice to not have to write my own recommendation.

The other side of things is that it has been undoubtedly lonely down here. I'm not the most outgoing person in the world and I definitely could have done more to make friends but it is pretty difficult for me without any structured environment. One thing is for certain, I need to get TV the fuck out of my life. I've spent too long rotting due to its presence. It's my kyrptonite.

With that being said I don't know if I am ready to come home yet. I really miss winter and home and you guys but I feel like there is so much still to do and see and really work on Spanish. I think I am just going to know when I am ready and when that feeling comes I will surely be home.

So I guess that is that, I could be gone as long as a couple weeks and then back to Boston or for a month or more travelling. I really don't know. I'm going to try and write from the road when I can and upload some pictures but I have no idea how difficult that will be. To be perfectly honest, I have really really enjoyed writing the blog. Never before in my life have I actually enjoyed writing or wrote for pleasure but this has been really fun. I've been thinking a lot lately about what my interests are and what I am passionate about and I still have no idea which sucksssss. I wish I had something that I could clearly say I loved to do and would like to work on for the rest of my life but I don't. I'm afraid that nothing interests me. However, I at least found writing this to be fun and maybe I can channel it in someway.

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for reading this thus far and I hope people enjoy it, special shout out to Australian "Canberra capital of Australia" Steph for always being so complimentary. Those of you who kept telling me to keep writing, and Sabby, wherever he may be going to school these days, because he was an unexpected big fan of the blog and spread my good word.

PS.

I have a decent amount of posts that I started to write and never finished or just never published because I thought they were too too random. When this is all said and done maybe I'll come out with a DVD-like special edition. Except instead of including never before seen footage and deleted scenes it will have the rando posts that never made it to print that I might have started writing while drunk.

One of the topics that I said I would write about but never got to was the Zombie Apocalypse. I started writing an epic post on it but I realized that my knowledge in the area was just too severely lacking and gave up every time I tried to write about it. Anyway the best I was able to do was come up with an epic title and an awesome leading photo to go with it:

You don't bring a knife to a gun fight and you don't take the fucking bus during the Zombie Apocalypse

Feeling inspired to do some writing Joe?