On the Eve of the Eve...

Of my many neurotic habits, the most life dominating is my need to organize things so that I end on a time that ends in five or zero. I have no clue why. Deep seated need for order? Aestic pleasure? Secret love affair with the metric system? Who can say, but, ultimately, this is only my second post and I already feel behind on my schedule. In exactly 70 days I will get on my return flight from China to the United States. So, in order to make sure I stay on the 70th day (and make sure that rabbits don't attack me in my sleep or whatever happens when you don't do stuff on 0's or 5's), I have 55 minutes to finish this.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have a chronic underwriting problem, so in an effort to correct that, I'm using you, dear reader, as a crutch to feed and structure my addiction to writing. After months of procrastinating and looking for reasons not to, I've finally managed to hit on what I think might be my solution to stick to writing,  by writing about something I want to talk about anyway: Going to China

I know, shocking. I'll give you a minute to process and then we'll continue.

Here's a picture of some puppies to soften the blow of my Earth
shattering announcement.

 By posting about China over the next two and a half months, I should a) gather a ton of material, b) create a writing schedule, and c) create a venue to share pictures and stories, while also directing people to a location where they can read about everything I did and not pester me for the same story an nth number of times. I don't mind, but I can tell this will be one of those experiences. I already feel tired telling the story and I haven't even been to the Middle Kingdom yet.

So, for everyone who wants to know on the eve of the eve of my departure, yes, I am excited to be going to China. Yes, I am nervous. No, I don't think the food will be terrible. Yes, I know, I won't do anything to be made a political prisoner. Honestly, with as many friends as I have had be a part of this program and as similar as we are, I think I'm going to have a blast. Luckily, I'll have one of my best friends with me and I'll be surrounded by 29 other classmates. As much as it seems like I'm heading into the Wild West, I assure you, this is not the case.

Oh good, done in time for 11:40. No rabbits tonight!

Mr. Mockler

P.S. I won't be all about China because that implies that when I'm done with the trip, I'm done with the blog. While my slacker self sees that solution as an excellent idea, I won't let myself off the hook that easy. Be prepared, dear reader, this is, hopefully, a life-long journey.