This blog was meant to be a journal of a journey, a place to document the changes, hopes, experiences, adventures, regrets and joys of starting a whole new life somewhere away from my beloved island. Unfortunately, it quickly became a silent testament to my complete lack of progress in getting my ass off the island and out to join my girlfriend and start a new life in my beloved NYC. A combination of lack of certainty in the employment situation over there, and later on, health problems, prevented me from heading over.

No longer. My main fear was my health: while it’s currently under control, I don’t know if or when out could get worse. But I’m done hiding. There are programs, services, things I can sign up to for free, that will help me not be much of a burden while I hunt down a job, and I’m tired of being too proud to beg. So this weekend I’m stepping out. Going to talk to my boss, explain that I’m leaving, and work something out with him. And hopefully by the end of next month, this little adventure will have begun in earnest.

My signed copy of Personal Effects: Dark Art, the new supernatural thriller from one of my favorite authors, J.C. Hutchins. I won the signed edition during a contest to help promote the book, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Now, my copy of the book has finally arrived, and I couldn’t help myself. Go see the full Photoset over on Flickr.

So, went out with my no-good friends, Beautiful Monster, Penguin Regina, Lord Absu, Dr. Ceejenstein, and others, to one of our regular hangouts, a little-known tapas restaurant called La Guitarra. We’ve been regulars there for a few years now, though I fear that’s about to change for me.

I’m having no second thoughts: I’ve wanted to leave the island for a long, long time, and this really does seem to be the time to finally set out and do it. But there’s no shame in admitting that there’s a few little things I’ll miss, and foremost among those are my friends, and the nights spent in warm camraderie around a few pitchers of amazing sangria, sharing food and laughs. And I sit, and I wonder if I’ll find a place like that over there, a place where the owner greets you by name when you walk in the door, where they have your table waiting, and there’s your friends, and your first glass of sangria is on the house. I hope I do.. and I hope I can invite my friends, both the ones I have now, and the ones I’m yet to make, over for a few drinks, and a few laughs.