I got up early and walked to the post office to mail off the last few packages of video games I sold on eBay. I also picked up a few packages (6 used gamecube games that are going to China with me!)

I paid my last month of rent and I got my end-of-lease terms figured out at my rental manager's place. They gave me the cleaning sheet (easy stuff) and I completed my intent to vacate form.

I went to work for 4 hours and built a new Statistics Department template. My goal is to have a new template for all the departments in my College before I leave. (Biology and Chemistry are the only two left.)

I came home to see that I had a few good phone messages... 1) my visa application was successful and my passport is in transit back to me via FedEx, and 2) the blood bank is in desperate need of my blood type and they want me to come in - type O negative blood is the universal donor, they can stick my blood in anybody! I wanted to give one last time before moving to China.

I've been researching the Foreign Service as a career opportunity after China. I'm especially interested in the "political" and "consular" career paths. I would be working at U.S. Embassies around the world for 2-3 years at a time while helping promote / develop the American foreign policy for whichever country I'd be in. That would be AWESOME. I love to travel, I love to promote relationships between countries ... and it would pay very well for a job that provided housing and allowed me to make an American-equivalent salary under a foreign currency. (I'd be rich, I'd be traveling, and I'd like my job... the only setback is the potential wife/children in my future, which I'm really not planning on right now.)

I planned my weekend, too. Friday night is the very last poker night. Saturday morning, I'm going to breakfast with Kirsten's Mom. She wants me to teach her how to dance for her son's wedding. Saturday night, my Chinese teacher is throwing a "going away" dinner for me. She invited a few of my favorite classmates and her husband. Delicious food and good friends wishing me well for my trip to China!

I also planned my real going away party for next Friday (the 8th). I invited 35 people! I can't believe there are 35 people in this town who I know and who like me enough to come wish me well. I have a bad habit of burning bridges with friends when they piss me off enough - ah well, I must not be burning too many bridges or there wouldn't be 35 freakin people!

Speaking of friends with burnt bridges, I saw my friend Megan the other day. She pretended like she didn't see me ... what a bitch. She got online after the Virginia Tech shootings to tell me that one of the victims had the same last name as her ... then she said, "Isn't that sad?" Yeah. It wasn't sad until I found out somebody had the same last name as you. What a fucking retard. Then I got mad at her because she's a journalist and the media is (in my opinion) the CAUSE of 99% of violence in the world. So I first told her the V. Tech thing was her fault because she's a journalist, then I told her that she's not a journalist because she sells ads for some shitty-ass local newspaper. I'm a dick, I know.

Chad - that's not YOUR Megan... not one-night-stand Megan. :) She's still around, she just graduated, and she's going backpacking across Europe! I'm surprised Europe isn't absolutely FILLED to the BRIM with dumb ass Americans who recently graduated from college. It's what everybody seems to do. No wonder European currency is valued so highly against our dollar - all these trust-fund junky slack-jobs are taking their American cash to Europe for a post-graduation spending fest. It's not even money they've earned themselves - it's their parents' money. Damn terrorists.

I told a lady I work with today that I wanted to look into jobs in the Foreign Service. When I told her that I would be working at a foreign embassy, she said, "Aren't those the places that get bombed?" Yep! Embassies do get screwed with on occasion - how exciting is that?! :) I would love to work somewhere interesting enough that it could be bombed in an "act of war" against our country. That just means that your job is actually making a difference in the world.

Yep, someday I'm going to be an American Ambassador! Hopefully I'll represent some far East country or somewhere in South America. Those are by far the most interesting areas left on the planet.

Wow, I'm in a writing mood tonight! Must be because I'm bored. Guess I'll go play some Counterstrike!