Three weeks ago: I put a dish in the drying rack.  It slipped out and hit a wine glass sitting next to the rack.  The glass shattered.  I told my roommate that I would get another glass to replace the one of his that I broke.

Two days ago: I finally got around to buying the replacement glass.  I couldn’t remember exactly what type of glass I broke, so I got two different types.

Yesterday: I gave the replacement glasses to my roommate.  They got placed on the counter.

Today: My roommate was putting away groceries.  He turned around suddenly and knocked the two new glasses onto the floor.  They both shattered.  The tags were still on the bases of the broken glasses.

Yes, the glasses that were purchased to replace the broken glasses were themselves broken.  Oh, the irony.

It’s difficult to grasp, but already two years have gone by since I first visited California.  More shocking is that this fall marks eight years since I began my undergraduate education.  Now I am approaching the end of my second college tour, so it seems like a good time to look into the crystal ball.

What would I like to do in the next year?  Some things come to mind:

• Get a job.  Yes, I want to be employed after I leave school.  Fancy that!  This might sound shallow, but one of the most important criteria will be location.  I’d like to stay in the Bay area, but I’d also be willing to move to the area around Boston.  I miss winter(!), which brings us to…
• Resume playing hockey.  In hindsight, I shouldn’t have stopped.  The area around Palo Alto isn’t exactly a hotbed of hockey activity, so moving someplace with a deeper hockey tradition might help with realizing this goal.
• Keep photographing.  I’d like to get involved with some organization, perhaps a small newspaper, that will allow me to continue doing sports photography.  I don’t see this as a full-time career, but I enjoy it enough to moonlight.
• Have another adventure, preferably outdoors in a land far away.  Some of my “adventures” in the past eight years include: snowboarding at Steamboat, visiting Paris,  backpacking around Europe (including running with the bulls), snowboarding at Whistler, visiting England, backpacking on Isle Royale, backpacking in the Grand Canyon, and leaving a good job to go to Stanford and live in California.  What will the next adventure be?  I’m thinking of something along the lines of an extended backpacking trip this coming summer in either Alaska or New Zealand.

I’ve had mixed success with these lists in the past, but I enjoy writing them to show me how my ambitions change over time.

Middle of massive party at Stanford. The atmosphere is euphoric. Champagne flowing.

As the clock ticked towards 8:00, the crowd stared counting down the seconds. The hour rang, the polls closed, and history was made: Barack Obama will be our next president.