Attitude With A Side Of Grr

 

Attitude With A Side Of Grr
by Rob Cottignies

In January, I posted a picture of myself sitting on the floor. It represented down-time, the un-glamorous side of travel.

I thought the point was well made but am presenting another important yet fairly opposite one now.

While looking back at this past year of vagabonding, there are some pretty neat things I saw and places I went. I’ve met a few people along the way and still talk to exactly none of them. (Read that as ‘I’ve made no friends’.)

I would like to highlight some good stuff while ignoring the "other" side. Though it might be more interesting, I'd rather not describe all the times I felt unproductive or just plain uncomfortable. And there were a lot of them.

Instead, a list of positive experiences...
*taking my visited national parks total to 19
*touring 10 state capitol buildings, which has led to a goal of going to all 50
*getting two tattoos
*my first WWOOFing experience (Worldwide Work On Organic Farms)
*the Idaho Potato Drop
*a not-very-successful stand-up comedy set at an open mic
*Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park in North Carolina
*going to my favorite beer bar twice (Kickbacks in Jacksonville, Florida)
*70,000 Tons Of Metal
*many comedy and music shows
*volunteering at farms, an animal shelter, a library, a food bank, litter clean-ups, MusikFest
*finally getting LASIK
*figuring out how to see familiar faces
*my Easter video
*an online argument with comedian Hari Kondabalu
*driving from New Jersey to California for the second time

There were, of course, other things as well. But much more has to happen in the next year and beyond. Too much time was spent feeling awful and that’s not acceptable.

My future is uncertain, which is both exciting and terrifying.

Like I’ve said many times before, we’ll see what happens. Cheers!