Hwoah!

So we go! I'm sitting in the Franklin's kitchen on beautiful Mercer Island, just outside of Seattle, and realizing that it's finally here. For months, when people would ask when I was leaving, I got in the routine of thoughtlessly answering "3 months", "2 months", "6 weeks", without cognitively recognizing than at some point, the answer would be "today." Well it is today, and I'm really excited. So what have I been doing since I graduated high school...I spent the summer working at Camp Horseshoe in Rhinelander, WI, which was awesome. Another summer with my best friends in the world. From there, I came home, and two of my best friends, Max and D-Web, had already left for school. The rest soon followed, so I spent 2 weeks saying goodbyes and hanging out with my Northwestern and Stanford friends. I also spent quality time with my brother, who left in early September for Prague.
I started working at Chicago Surplus Computer soon after I returned from camp. My boss Dave would pick me up at 645 every morning, take me out to Starbucks, and then bring me home around 5. Spending two months working at CSC was...a good way to make good money ( as dave says, dead presidents tell no tales), a great learning experience, and really funny. CSC is kind of like a modern age Maxwell Street Vendor, we would pick up companies e-scrap, or computer junk, and recycle and refurbish it. I spent time in Riverdale, South of the Southside, loading up monitors that were stained with what looked like vomit, dirt, and blood, in an about to be torn down warehouse surrounded by torn down projects. I went to Chinatown for the first time, to assist (stand there) while my boss made some deal. I spent many monotonous hours sorting through USB cables and surge protectors, and just about every other piece of electronics equipment you could think of. However, of all the things I did and learned, the most enjoyable and most valuable time I spent at CSC was with my boss Dave, the "king of surplus", driving around in his van, listening to him preach right wing politics, getting his outlook on the economy, and learning about how to run a business. My manager, and all the others who worked at CSC, were extremely helpful and fun to work with, and it is an experience that I will never forget. I could spend hours talking about my work experience, telling you how the dynamics in the office were funnier than NBC's the office, but I have to tell you about my Big Ten tour.
I started at U of I for a weekend, went to Madison the next Friday night, took a several weekend hiatus for wisdom teeth surgery, and then finished strong at Indiana and an evening at Northwestern. I've been trying to decide which weekend was the best, really bet wen Illinois and Indiana because those are the only two I visited, and I think I have to go with...Illinois. It's not that Indiana wasn't absolutely incredible, drinking at ZBT late only to get up the next morning ad drink again at tailgating, going to the football game, playing basketball, hanging out with some of my best friends, it's just that Illinois was absolutely perfect. The weather was blue skies and 70 degrees, and sitting out in the quad with Mark, Cowin, and Dana, extremely hung over, munching on gourmet bagels and drinking cold vitamin waters, was just about the most relaxing thing I've done in a while (Tied with laying out on a yacht in the same weather while watching the air and water show, which I did the next day). I signed at Sammy's house on a pizza box, saw half of the class of 2008 of highland park high school, and just really enjoyed myself. I came home that weekend, and told my mom that had I visited Illinois last year before Dec 31, there's a good chance I wouldn't be going to Harvard.
I spent less notable time at Madison, on my way to work on the Kohl State Assembly campaign in Milwaukee. After spending the night with Holtzman in Madison, the beautiful and clean hospitality of the Kohl's house was greatly appreciated. I spent about 5 days leading up to the democratic working for the Kohl campaign, and although we lost, it was a great experience. My highlight of that week was standing on a corner similar to Lake Cook and Skokie Blvd. for four hours with a giant "Vote for Kohl" sign, yelling at people to vote. I liked that a lot. My mom also came up and worked on the campaign for two days, and it was great to see her back in action as a campaigner. She's so great.
I came home, got my wisdom teeth pulled, spent two weeks lamping (doing nothing) with my cocounselor Avi from Israel. Actually, we watched every episode of Entourage ever made, so I guess we did something. I also read a lot and got my bowels messed up from all those painkillers.
As you can imagine, it's kind of hard to write a brief overview of the last two months, and contrary to what some of my friends think, I have been doing a lot of stuff. I'm still sitting in the Franklin's kitchen, and Cynthia's calling us for breakfast (and now she's crying), and I still haven't told you about Sam, the dude I'm traveling with. He's cool, he's going to WashU next year, his dad traveled with my dad in college, we went to Israel together, and more about him later.
I've learned a lot over the last couple months, mainly that "time off is really time on" (taken from an essay written by dean of admissions from Harvard). I'm excited for my year of adventure, and I'll be in Hanoi, Vietnam the next time we talk.
Quick last story...I went and voted two days ago (for Obama, to all of those people who think I'm a republican, which I might be, I just hate Sarah Palin). I walked out of the voting booth and I see my mom, hysterically crying something like "blah blah blah my baby's all grown up blah blah", and I looked around the room, and saw all three receptionists in the county clerk's office, also hysterically crying. Mom is so funny, dad is so much cooler.
So everyone, next correspondence will be cooler I think, less information packed in one. In the meantime, check out my brother's blog at bohemianbabble.blogspot.com, he's a much better writer than I am (even though I'm cooler). Miss and love you all.