The Top List - Part 1

My Peace Corps blog had a regular weekly post entitled 'Weekend Update' in which I would use recurring categories and segments like, the much adored, 'Ugandan Annoyance of the Week' to tell an anecdote from the past week.  I've had some requests for a similar feel, and though my life back home is hardly interesting enough to  accommodate a weekly post I'd like to periodically let people back in Africa know the best of what is going on in America.

Best American Food:

Crab Cake Sandwich across the street from the market in Charleston on a sunny 70 degree day while drinking a SweetWater IPA.

Favorite Uganglish Slip:

For my first few days back I threw out a couple of 'somehow(s).'   Really I'm not having much of a problem with language.  I from time to time say a weebale or a tugende but mostly on purpose at home.

I've also said, 'it is finished' and hard Ugandan 'sorry'(s) a few times.


Favorite American Convenience:

Hot showers, every day.

Funny Show I Didn't Know About In Uganda:

New Girl On Fox

What Is On The Agenda:

After last week being dominated by personal stuff I'm getting back to cleaning out my old room and Rubermaid bins.  I'm hoping to have my travel kit ready this week so I can mobilize to a job at a day's notice from my former employer should a good opportunity open up.  For now I'm busy waiting.

Loving My Africa Lungs

Living at over 4000 feet for 18 months has paid off big time with my running times.  Dropping 15 pounds also hasn't hurt much.  Regardless I came back and resumed my old 5.4 mile loop around my parents neighborhood.  Over Christmas I broke 45 minutes for the first time ever, and after returning from Africa in February I completed my course in under 42 minutes.

With the long term goal in mind of wanting to run a marathon, a barrage of events happening in the Midlands of South Carolina over the next month, and my job search in a "wait and see" mode I decided to sign up for a few events.

This morning I ran my first ever official race, the 10k Lexington Race Against Hunger.  I completed the run in 46.09, besting my pace from my 5.4 mile run last week and averaging over 8 miles an hour.   Pleased with my results I signed up for the Columbia "Famously Hot" Half Marathon to occur on March 10.  It is a quick turn around and I'm not trained up for distance.  I'm going to try to run 11-12 miles in the middle of this week to prepare for the 13.1 race.  I'm really only hoping to average 10 minute miles in the half marathon so the hardest part is probably going to be forcing myself to run that slowly at the start.  

The Opening Moves

In getting my 1st world country life back on track I had 3 immediate milestones / objectives. Phone, car and job.

I needed to get a phone and my old phone number reactivated. My family and I went to the Verizon store immediately after leaving the airport. Within an hour I was up and running with the Droid 4 by Motorola. I've been extremely happy with the phone all week. I purchased a Blackberry Curve in 2008, back when it was the top of the line. It is amazing how much the phone industry has changed in the past 4 years.

Over the next few days I started the job and car search. The job search is ongoing but there is stuff happening in the background, just not stuff I'm willing to put on a public blog yet. My initial feedback left me with the desire to be able to travel light and quick and through all kinds of conditions. After a few days looking around the Columbia market I picked out a 2012 Nissan Rogue SV All Wheel Drive Crossover. It presented a really good value for where I think my life / career will go the next 5 years. The BMW or Volvo Convertible I've had my eye on can wait till I'm working in a home office, for now I'm planning on construction sites in remote locales or areas with severe weather. It is my first car with Bluetooth which I am loving. Also it is my first ever new car.

Blogging Is Kind Of Like Crack

I've decided I'm going to keep up the blogging even now that I am home. My previous blog, Resist Or Serve, was started as an attempt to keep contact with my family and friends while I was living in Uganda. It worked, and I felt closer to them than I sometimes did in the states. Now with many friends still in Uganda, friends spread across the states, and my career once again taking me away from the town my family lives in, I see no reason to stop.

My last blog was titled Resist Or Serve, a quote from the X-Files meaning that I felt my Peace Corps service to be a resistance against the natural order and decay of the world, that by not stepping up and accepting a fools errand and impossible task that one is serving the worlds destructive forces of poverty, disease, and war, and that even though resistance is futile, it is right and good.

My Peace Corps service was full of ups and downs. In the end I was proud of the work I had done while I was there, but in early February found myself without any reasons to continue. And so, I decided to start the rest of my life... the first step was resigning from the Peace Corps, this blog will document the next steps...