Hey there internet world...

How's it going? It's been a while, huh? My fault, totally, of course, but what the hell can I say, I'm a scatterbrain. I kept meaning to stop by a share a story or two and then, BAM, next thing ya know, February is almost over. I mean, seriously, where the fuck have these last few month gone? And how the hell is it possible that it seems to have passed by in a flash and yet, at the same time, winter seems so un-fucking-believably long? I don't have it nearly as bad as my friends down south, for sure, what with snopocalypse, and snOMG, and snomageddon and the Real World DC and all, but still. The leaves were falling just a moment ago and its felt like Narnia before the thaw ever since. Weird, right?

But anyway, let's see, in the last few months I've been, at one time or another.... busy, distracted, overwhelmed, excited, relaxed, overworked, exhilarated, depressed, proud, shocked, nostalgic, disappointed, ridiculously happy and pathetically addicted to facebook, to name just a few. It would take several pages for the details of where all that came from, so, in hopes of keeping your attention, I'll just give you the highlights. And only the good ones at that because, quite simply, I've had some vino and don't wanna make myself sad. So, here it goes...late 2009 thru early 2010, in a nutshell...

There was......playing "Champion!" at the Rocky statue during the Great Urban Race, attending the NCCC Conference in Chicago and the very next day jetting off to DC for a visit with Mr & Mr Durban Bud & a sea of rainbow flags at the National Equality March, Turkey Day at Denver Stadium with my bro & his boys (which counts as a good highlight even though the Giants even barely showed up to play that day), the annual Jamaica trip (best job perk ever!!!), White Christmas in Charlottesville with the fam (with a snow fort and everything), and then, the super-duper favoritist highlight ever, which includes a bunch of its own smaller highlights -- 12 days in Costa Rica, during what were some of the coldest days the east coast has seen all winter, to see two of our very dearest friends tie the knot and during which time we......

...got a private river tour of Cano Negro near the Nicaraguan border (including our own special little run in with some seriously heavy armed Tico cops)















...had the pleasure of getting to know Carlos (former Jersey resident and Tico-born proprietor of Chachagua Rain Forest Hotel, which you HAVE to go to if you ever find yourself in central CR) and his horses














...got to stay in one of the most beautiful rooms I've ever seen with a view there are not words for

The Room:
















The View:
















...entered and won what we could only describe as Battle Karaoke















...watched as El Jefe, an adorable and yet somewhat terrifying monkey, climbed onto our private deck (named El Jefe, or The Boss, because, as the DH said, "well he's the boss of me" -- cause really, if there were a big ass monkey on your deck, you'd probably let him be in charge of you too)
















...had drinks in an Iran-Contra era airplane





















....witnessed a simple yet stunning wedding ceremony on a piece of beach that gets washed out each day and so will never again be exactly the same (which I thought was just so crazy cool)



















And best of all, got to live life with no cell phones, television, blackberries or internet for 10 whole days. It was glorious. So much so that I'm thinking seriously of buying property there just to have a place to escape every so often. Because then at least I'd have an excuse for not stopping by more often......