The Comforts of Home .

Well, the semester is over, the exams all taken, and I did quite well for the semester; we already got all our grades back. I'm happy, and though the drive home took us longer than anticipated (we wanted to take some time on the drive up to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway) we made it all the way in one day. We, meaning my brother and I, because he is now in college, going to Virginia Tech, and thus the exit off of I-81 for his school is literally on my way home. It's not a short drive, 750 miles if you take all highways. Since we meandered around a bit, probably was more like 8 or 900.


And so here we are, back in the Garden State for the holidays. I've taken the past five days or so to just do absolutely nothing work-related. That means no applications, no resume work, no job, no nothing, save going running one day. I've been able to see my girlfriend quite often, just about every other day, which is great when you think about only seeing each other once every 2 months or so during the school year. Long distance is not easy. I even took a trip yesterday to the city with her to see the Rockefeller Center tree, which I have never been to see in person. As I've said before, I always fall in love more with NYC every time I'm there.

And now here I sit, Christmas a few days away, jazz music playing on Pandora, and a fire in the fireplace that I made myself (Dad showed me how to do everything just so a few days ago). And yes, this is a real fire, none of that flip-a-switch gas nonsense. Use that type, and you're missing out on so many sounds and smells that you get with a real fire.

And so here I am, on winter break. Well-rested, enjoying family and girlfriend. I hope this finds you well and well-rested yourself. Get ready to sit back and enjoy the daily posts of Simply, Life again. Fingers crossed, there won't be any need to have any more hiatuses!

In other news... I did this today, in tribute to the beards of olden days (yes I know, my facial hair is pretty thin... bad genes I guess, oh well!):