I vote for now

Toe,
I love your posts. I have had a little beer to drink. Two, to be exact. It helps me to feel more manly while I am cooking dinner. Plus, I like having that nice beer buzz on an empty stomach.

You mentioned living in the same town all your life and running into people from the past. I feel like I have lived a kind of opposite life from you in this area. As you mention, I have moved around a hell of a lot. I have lived in 5 states, if you count DC as one, which I do. I don't run into people from my past here. I am completely separated from it, except with regards to work, and even that is at a distance. I am really only truly confronted with my past when I come to town to meet with clients, and to see you, and my family. Then, when I run into the occassional old friend or even ex-girlfriend, it can feel very awkward indeed, because I have been gone for so long.

My life at present is pretty isolated, except for people C brings into our life. Recently we had a visitor, a faculty exchange person, from a European country. She was really nice, and although she did not speak a lot of English, she was fun to have around. I liked the way she pronounced English words, the unusual pauses before simple answers (which made it seem like she was full of wonder when she did actually answer). It was a simple human contact, someone new, that brightened up my isolated world for a while.

Anyway, back to our topic: I feel like if we stay in this town, which we will for the foreseeable future, I will slowly develop a past here. I will start to feel connected, less isolated, and will one day look back at this as a wonderful place. But I know this is a great place right now--it is not perfect, not by a long stretch, but there are such great things in my life right now. The flipside of my isolation--being self-employed, setting my own schedule--is such an amazing thing. Having a home with a yard is nice, even with the awful financial responsibility and the nagging problems that I need to resolve (the siding and roof need work, I need to insulate that pipe that froze last winter)--this is wonderful. And good god, my garden is something I can't imagine life without.

Still, life in this town is slow, and I am slow to get out and make friends, meet people. The friends I have are through C, and I don't feel as close to them yet as I do to you, for instance, but they are good people overall, and maybe with time that will come, or at least some deeper friendship than we currently have.

Anyway, I am blabbing on. Now it is time for me to answer your wonderful you-tube video list.
Love,
E-word