Hey, a blog entry! What the hell happened to the blog?

Urgh, yeah, it has been a while. What happened to the blog was that I got busy, plus I got bored, plus the nature of my trip changed in such a manner as to make a continuous blog seem like a relatively uninteresting endeavor capable only of boring myself and others. Since Italy the name of the blog should probably have been changed from International Journal of Sport and Leisure to something along the lines of International Language Geek and Procrastinator. Also, thank god for this excellent and completely on-point article I saw on slate.msn.com because in copying a link to it here I can save myself the tedious effort of thinking up something remarkably similar on my own: http://www.slate.com/id/2140095/ . Please note that nobody has approached me for a chick-lit book-deal. And that I do not own a kitty-cat. Otherwise I identify. And yet, here I am typing away.

Where have you been all this time?

Where have I been all your life? Ah, that question yet again, or close enough to it, really. I know what you mean, even if you're too shy to come out and say it. Anyway, most of the last 5 months were spent in Buenos Aires studying Spanish and eating tender-juicy cows by the tender-juicy herdful. I have a catch-up post in the works on this, which I plan to complete after my next quadruple by-pass procedure, G_d-willing.

After leaving BsAs on April 14 I spent a very pleasant, tropically sunny and virtually cow-free week with my parents and my sister in Cozumel, Mexico, where the former two have a time share. After reuniting with the family, which quickly learned it would be supporting me indefinitely on my return home (lots of crying all around) I got back to diving after nearly 10 months away. Although the reefs have suffered because of the hurricane that devastated the island last summer, it was a good experience and Cozumel itself is a beautiful, very tranquil place. Most of my time was not spent diving but rather lounging around in beach-chairs sipping increasingly spicy Bloody Marys. It was one of those all-you-can-drink inclusive-deal places, so I was free to experiment often and liberally with the addition of more and more tobasco sauce. My tongue is still slightly numb and I don't really remember too much more. The fat, drunk Texan guy who slapped me on my back and hollered "YOU A REAAAAAL MAN!!!" into my face, in an enthusiastically explosive gust of cheesy-nacho and Heineken breath, just after I added a heaping fiery-red spoonful of tabasco to one of my Bloody Marys was, I like to hope, just a figment of my imagination.

Where are you now, you big lug?

In Placencia, Belize, in the process of lugging my lovable lug of myself down south to the Bay Islands on the north coast of Honduras.

In the first place, Why? and in the second, Did you actually think that last response was clever?

(1) I want to get my PADI Dive Master certification before I come home. I started my trip and learned how to dive in Honduras and I like the idea of ending it there with an advanced scuba course, just as I like the idea of being able to return to the country where I was born, this time with the ability to speak the language, more or less. Oh how it does bring tears to my eyes, the very notion...

(2) No. I'm so sorry. Never again.

When you hauling that lazy ass home?

My heart says "Never!" but my wallet says: "June 3rd, Bitch!"

What are your plans for the future?

Work and save, save and work. Ideally I'd like to find opportunities in the law/business/finance world that involve South America or Europe. It may be hard to come by, it may be easy. Either way I will have a suitcase packed and ready for the next flight to Buenos Aires, Rome or, to paraphrase Neil Patrick-Harris, aka Doogie Howser, aka "The Doog", in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, wherever G_d takes me.

Anything else to say for yourself?

Nah. Will try to crank through a few more entries soon if only to stave off the maddening boredom of my stay in Belize (as of Tuesday, April 25, stuck waiting for a boat to Honduras that only runs Thursdays and Saturdays).

Thank you, you've been fantastic.

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