previously on "J&P"...

yes it was this time last year that we found ourselves in each other's lives. lately it seems like it was forever ago but, yeah, a year ago.

first scene was actually at siam paragon, me coming down the escalators to meet you and seeing you for the first time. do you remember what you thought of me the first time you saw me?
then we went to dinner at the beer park overlooking the bridge. you drove and we went down your favorite part of bangkok. then you ordered food for us and pointed at the bridge. i hadn't experienced that view before and i was impressed. you were easy to talk to and pleasant to look at. i remember you talked to me about your ex-boyfriend and what had happened. i was just happy to have a new friend. a generous, open friend. and on and on and on...

no real plans for my birthday. i'm in a reflective mood. i'm breaking ground over here. my first year of my 30s is completed and now the real journey begins. will i feel this aloof when i'm 35? what about 40? ...so i might do dinner with some friends. i didnt schedule the day off. i just want to go into work, observe others, think of about the road that led me here, and the road i want to travel on, and just reflect. and of course, i have to visit my father in the cemetery.

you're right. i have friends who love me here but the ones that i've known my entire life are the ones i barely speak to. and the new friends that i now have, courtesy of Good Karma (that's the codename i'll use for the club i'm working in) are great... but they don't know me like Ron would know me, or my sister, or you... but i'm not complaining. i love them and they've all been open in welcoming me. and even if it's just one drink in honor of the day i was born, it will be enough to make me happy and i'll call it a good day.

it's autumn in Chicago. it's unseasonably warm so that means the yellow and red leaves haven't fallen yet. i've been meaning to walk the streets and take some pictures. perhaps tomorrow.

i can't believe you were still with that kid. he was too young. in the frame of mind you're in and the path youre on, i didn't think it would work out anyway. i hope the lessons of Dharma came in handy at that moment.

toronto was good. brief adventures in those other lands. perhaps i'll go again in december for xmas....