Two things a bird posted recalled this to my memory: first, the request for more blog reading; and then the blog-provided map-generator of one’s past travel destinations. When I was abroad in Santiago de Chile, I met another study abroad student who took his dissatisfaction with the study abroad experience in hand, dropped out of his program, and found work cutting trail in the Patagonian wilds. I know it sounds like a fairy tale, but I’m serious; some people just have a gift for living good stories.

It was, I believe, during Pimm’s presentation about Online Diaries that someone brought up how email correspondence sometimes becomes diaristic in nature. This leads me to a somewhat embarrassing confession: I am engaged in just such a correspondence. In and of itself, that revelation may not seem all that embarrassing, but embarrassment is all in the details.

The correspondence originated earlier this semester, shortly after a point in late September when I decided to quit AIM like a smoking habit I could no longer afford.