"Found What I'd Lost Inside . . .

"My spirit has been purified
Take a thorn from my pride
And hand in hand we'll take a walk outside

"Thank you for the sun,
The sun that shines on everyone
Who feels love.
Now there's a million years
Between my fantasies and fears
I feel love."

Like I told Miss Erin yesterday, somewhere in the approximately 12 hours we talked yesterday from the end of an afternoon session until the hotel room was crashed by GMU kids, Oasis represents the part of me that thinks even though I don't want to. I find myself pondering everything that is, has been, and could be--that last one is especially hard to wrap your head around--but I still come out hopeful. That's what my favorite band is to me, and that's why I felt the lyrics appropriate.

In case you couldn't already tell, this will probably be a long, rambling entry. I can't help it; my head is still spinning and I still feel mentally intoxicated from this weekend. I blame Erin. We're an awful lot like each other, and even if we're not we understand each other, and that's a rare thing in a busy life. It made for good company this weekend, though. I haven't felt this excited and dizzy about the dangerous future since fall break.

Nashville was a fun city to be in, and I hope the reporters from here enjoyed everything as much as I did. I saw Chris from Indiana, ended up joined at the hip to Erin, and we also ran into about a dozen other Georgia peaches, not including the big man himself: Cecil Bentley. Erin and I made sure to toast Cecil a few times every night, and even got Adam in on it too--just because Cecil has been good this far doesn't mean he still doesn't need our toasting for the future.

It was just as hard today to walk away from Erin as it was to walk away from Adam a month ago. When you do run across someone who understands the base of you within just a few days, it's hard to leave them. Leaving before the sun comes up is tiring; I'd lived a whole day before I got back to Fort Worth at noon. It was an interesting trip back . . . something would come up to stop me, and some complete stranger would fix everything. It was seemed strange, but it was so good and pure that it shouldn't have surprised me.

I guess in a nutshell it was just a very, very good reason, perhaps not relaxing but entertaining and electrifying. You need things to jolt you out of yourself once in a while.

Life is beautiful, people are beautiful, and it makes me confident without being complacent.

(If you understand that, just know I miss you.)