Bill Murray Learned the Lesson of a Lifetime

Well the dollar's doing a little better against the pound these days. That's good.

My next door neighbor (a) loves cooking, (b) is an excellent cook, and (c) loves to cook for anyone willing to eat. I (d) love to eat. I am also (e) inspired to cook. They don't serve lunch or dinner on Saturday and Sunday's and instead of starving or spending a lot of money on British McDonald's, I eat fresh, healthy, often organic, pasta or Austrian dishes.

Today is the first of February. Tomorrow is the second of February. Tomorrow is also Groundhog's Day which is one of America's favorite movies as well as America's second favorite holiday for over 100 years. (I don't know what's #1: Christmas or 4th of July? Or maybe it's a total curve ball like Labor Day.)

Anyway, what I'm really getting at is that it's always fun to think about what you were doing exactly one year ago from today and try and trace a few of the big things that led you to the exact moment you're in right now.

One year ago today I was in a blue Jeep on US 70 East on a 500 mile journey to Punxsutawney, PA with Sheena Rae Longstreath. It took us about 9 hours. We arrived in Pittsburgh after 10 p.m. We didn't have hotel. We didn't know the city. We didn't have much cell phone reception. We didn't care. The weather was supposed to be horrendous. Many a worried soul advised us not to go. We knew better than to listen to the nay-sayers. We sped through the tunnel and the city exploded before us.
Everytime we tried to enter or leave Pittsburgh it took an hour.

We woke up late on Groundhog's Day and actually heard the prediction of 6 more weeks of winter on the news that morning. We still made it to that strange town in the middle of freaking nowhere where they don't salt the icy sidewalks and put the image of a groundhog on everything.

That semester I took a history class, applied for two jobs, and busted my chops for one thing, all of which led to this.

A year ago I had blue hair, was still on good terms with my roommate, had been married for 4 months, didn't have a car, and wore a parka. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I had a desperate hope.