I suppose it's not unexpected, but I have been plagued by a great deal of getting by lately. A summer internship in central New York wasn't something I imagined to be a social outing, but I still wasn't prepared for all of the car-damaging, mind-numbing lack of excitement Utica has to offer - especially when you know no one.

I think it's given me a much better image of what I hope to avoid in the next place I live. For one - I'd like someplace where it seems nice to walk outside. My neighborhood here is not only in the middle of nowhere, but doesn't look friendly. I'd also been thinking that a city would be nice, and perhaps it would, but living in a rickety place really doesn't make one feel good.

Mostly, though, I think the real lack of people around me has had the most profound impact. Only at work do I have people around me with expectations and habits of their own, so only there do I really have a structure. At home I can really do whatever I want whenever, and often that means not getting to bed as often as would probably be healthy. I'm also just starved for human contact.