I'm Back!

As you may (or more likely may not) have noticed, I've been away from blogging for a little while. The thing is, when you move back in with your parents the last thing you want to do is tell people about it. Well, actually the last thing you want to do is bring a girl home, but closely behind that is blogging to everyone you care about that you've shacked up with Mom and Dad.

So if you were wondering, I've been in Tennessee for the past 9 months (WoW it sounds like a long time). Why Tennessee you ask? Because my parents feel like they're in college all over again down there and they don't have to pay the property taxes that are in Jersey. So I've been living the retired lifestyle for a while and it's definitely something I could get used to. Of course I wanted to spend some time with my parents who I hadn't seen for the whole year while I was away in Korea, and my 95 year old grandmother that was staying with them too.

Those aren't good enough reasons to move back home, you say? Well, yes those weren't the only reasons, but it was really nice to spend some time with my parents when I wasn't dealing with my teen aged angst (yet I've realized you will always feel like a child when you go home, no matter how old or successful you are). The real reason is that I decided that I wanted to go back to school and the idea of looking for an apartment, a job, and a school all at once seemed overwhelming. That makes sense right?

Oh yeah, and I wanted to train to play college football :-p

Punting Session -

So here's the low down on what has happened to me in the past nine months, the abridged version: I trained everyday to get better at punting. I put on about 20 pounds. I started teaching English to Russians online. I made lots of friends with retirees and Russians. I became an Irish citizen. I won a national punting competition in Florida. I turned 26. I got a division 1AA full ride offer to the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff to play football. I turned down a division 1AA full ride offer to UAPB because of eligibility rules. I made cool friends in Tennessee "around" my age. I moved to Missouri. I'm on course to get my Masters degree in English, my K-12 teaching certificate, and play Division II college football at Missouri Southern State University starting this summer. I moved into a really terrible house that was about to fall apart. I moved out quickly and found a GREAT home that's nearly brand new with a cool roommate and a cool dog :-)

...And that's just about where I'm at now. I'm really happy, and trying to be hopeful about starting school and playing football again, but both prospects also make me really nervous (but excited too). I wanted to keep blogging because I still rarely see any of the people that are always on my mind and I wanted to let you all know what I'm up to and that I still think of you.



I hope I can keep doing this every once in a while and if you haven't heard from me in a while, I'm sorry, but I was just a little embarrassed...no offense Mom & Dad.