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iPod Touch.
Palm Centro.
Books.
Nintendo DS.
Nintendo Wii.
xbox 360.
GameCube.
Magazines.
TV.
DVDs.
MacBook.
Puzzles.
Board Games.

Each day I am bombarded with all the fun little ways I've packed into my life to pass my time. To fill the time between work and sleep, sleep and work. Distractions. What are they distracting me from? What are they my escape from? Am I really having "fun", or am I just distracting myself from something I'm not living?

Maybe I need a new hobby.

I've lived in Boston for all 27 years of my life. Boston is a very transitional city. People who grew up here leave to go to college or experience the world, then come back to either visit home or move back. Lots of people come here for college, spend all four years ranting and raving about how their home is soooo much better than Boston, get stuck here for a year or two after graduation because they can't find a job elsewhere, then dash on out to greener pastures. Now that I'm older, I find that people come here for grad school and then immediately leave for big great jobs elsewhere. That is a weird happy medium between hating being stuck here and enjoying their brief time here because they know how brief it really will be.

I used to get down and sad when people left me, but over the years I got used to it and now I realize that people come back to visit all the time, because once they leave, all of a sudden they have all this nostalgia and they have to come visit. And usually they have a friend or two who have come here since they left and they want to visit them. Plus, all four of my best friends have parents who live either in Mass or Maine, so I'm guaranteed at least an annual visit (harder now, now that my parents are in Philly!).

Rob has been here for five years now (crazy, I know) and he is experiencing his first real big loss... one of the first BC folks he met, a guy who lived with both Rob's bro and Rob himself, probably one of the guys he has the most in common with, Austin. Very sad.

So with the help of Pahn here at work, here's the list of this summer's leavers...

Austin
Jerry
Dan Shin
Kenny Kang
Dongmin
Bryant
Carol
Sam
Justin
Mary
Grace
Jen
Moses

Future:
Achan
Cory

Sadly enough, I'm sure this list will grow as I remember more people who are leaving...

note-- I am especially proud of the title of this entry. If you don't get it, think about it! Homonyms rule.