This is a medley of random goodness you may receive when you come home for Thanksgiving. While it’s mostly for me, I feel that this illustrates how little good things in life do occur, so we shouldn’t discount them so readily.

• Goodness of girlfriends: The heading is from my good friend Mitza who I always spend time with in Houston and drink bubble tea. She loved the earrings O and I got her for her birthday. Her friend also just got married on the Rachael Ray show.
• Goodness of roads: Holy cow is I-10 fantastic now that the construction mess is done in my neck of the woods Trust me, Houstonians need a gabazillion lanes on the freeway and double-laned HOV lanes.
• Goodness of capturing memories: My dad got me a new camera. My old one broke within in year randomly (gray screen in both display and viewfinder, yet it still took photos). But very soon, my new camera will touch my hands. Yay!
• Goodness of junk: My dad also handed me three 1 GB USBs because they give them out like candy at his conferences. Since this is not the first time he has done this, I’m already sharing with someone who needs one.
• Goodness of food: Self explanatory. Nothing beats home-cooked meal!

Despite the paper I have to write and a project (with a terrible client) that I have to do, this holiday break is only going to get better! Plus I can’t wait to see two of my bestest friends in the world in a few days.

One of the hardest things to do after you leave school is keep in touch with your friends. You no longer get to see them every day in class or at lunch. You no longer call each other to solve calculus problems or chat about the Homecoming game. In some cases, like ours, you no longer even live in the same state. So what’s the secret to our success?

Effort.

We chat online several times a week, and we talk on the phone once or twice a month. Actually one of our favorite ways to keep in touch is to write letters, usually on goofy stationery we forgot we had. (Yes, people do still use pen and paper and the US Postal Service.) But even though we tend to rely on hightech methods of communication, the best way to keep in touch is lowest on the tech scale: seeing each face to face and hanging out in person.

That’s exactly what we did last month when Angie came to Cincinnati.

Read the rest of this entry »