Bits and Pieces

I haven't been writing much lately because I've been busy doing the following:

- Moving into a new apartment
- Preparing for my new job
- Sitting in traffic
- Reading "Persuasion"
- Sitting in traffic
- Spending a blissful week in the Outer Banks with no cell phone reception or internet connection (but plenty of Food Network)
- Making up cocktails with my awesome roommate (more on that in a future post)
- Did I mention the traffic?

The mosaic shop, Ravenna, Italy

I've also been a little short on inspiration.  No - Actually, my life is ripe with inspiration at the moment; the fact is rather that it's all a bit too overwhelming to sort through.  Much of the past six months is still fresh in my mind, and I am frequently revisiting and reliving many moments, emotions, sights, and lessons.  Pardon me for falling back on a tired analogy, but they're like the pieces of tile and glass that make up mosaics like the ones that Carrie and I saw in Ravenna.  Some pieces are decidedly ugly and rough in isolation; others glisten with peerless beauty through and through.  They all eventually fall into place and make one coherent, beautiful visual story; but right now I feel like I'm at the beginning, sifting through a pile of broken and beautiful shards that have been dumped onto a table in front of me.  I don't know the master plan, but I'm trying to figure out where some of the pieces fit, and maybe the purpose of others -- even the really ugly ones -- will become clearer in the process.