Holy Smack! It's October!

It totally slipped past me.

I mean, obviously it didn't really, because five of the six October events I was crowing about all year have already passed, and the final one is tonight, but you know what I mean, right?

There was the Olympic City naming: Rio de Janeiro
Levi's Gran Fondo: a raging success from what I've heard
Bad Religion: fantastic, oh.
Christchurch holiday: well, so-so. I was sick the entire time and also received news of Ben's accident while I was there so...
My brother's 21st: yay!

So tonight is the Michael Jackson tribute party. I don't know how I feel about it. Since I heard about Ben, I've been swinging between the two ideas of a) reverting back to my old, anti-social ways and b) living it up, Ben-style. Right now, the former seems like a pretty good option so you can imagine I'm in two minds about even going. That said, I'm already committed to making up two friends for the night, so I kind of have to.

Urgh.

I've spent a couple of days hanging out with Ben's family this week. We've been close since I first became friends with Ben, ten years ago, so it's been nice to feel like in some small and mostly insignificant way that I'm helping them cope. Of course, naturally, it's largely been the other way around. Ben's sister, whose makeup I did for the Waikato Law Ball earlier in the year, has amazed me in the last week with her ability to deal with this loss (and you need only to read any one of the articles or notices in the paper here to understand just what a loss it is). I love her and her family.

In fact, even though I've been planning this for some time (the initial "draft" was completed mid-August), Ben's departure has further motivated me to sort myself the hell out, and I'm stoked to finally announce that I'm going to be returning to the University of Otago for the Summer session, and then for another year before I fuck off to Japan. Future-proofing my life, if you will. I've sold the bikes, I'm done chasing the elusive happiness-through-victory-in-sport dream. I'm growing up and getting a grown-up life for myself, so I can pursue dreams of the professional nature. So, they're kinda new dreams, but hopefully dreams that will create a life for me that will be more fulfilling than medals and shin splints. So, a month from now, expect to hear a lot less from me in terms of blog posts, and hopefully a lot more in terms of contribution to the chemical community (ooh, I like how that sounded). AND, most importantly, I've enrolled in some Japanese papers, so I won't need to take Nayuha to the supermarket with me every day once I get there. Future-proofing my life. Thanks, Ben... not only for that, but for everything. I miss you. xxx

Now that's something everyone can enjoy.