One of my all-time favorite kinds of blog posts are the ones that come as I'm about to fall asleep. Sure that may mean breaking my shut down mode and having to turn the computer back on, but it's fresher than when I jot down the thoughts on a post-it (which I don't have any lying around at home) and trying to recollect what the keywords are supposed to mean.

Anyway, I figured out that this year (first post of oh-10 yay!) is the time I become a family man. Not that it means I'm starting a family getting some chick I barely know knocked up, but just being involved in my family or families really. While there's plenty of people I really have yet to meet (including the chick I will eventually be knocking up), the majority of the people in my life at the moment I feel I have known for a considerable amount of time (at least 3 years). My inner circle here at home is rooted from high school friends so thats 7-8 years and the few from middle school at more than 10 years. While recently my college friends are ones that I've met withing the last year or so, there are a few that I've known since pretty much the beginning. Now with graduation coming I'll be back as full-time family member at home and in the tri-state area. Today some of my cousins kids that have been growing while I've been away are learning my name and learning that the fat guy that they love to bother is my brother.

I don't really think of this as something arbitrary to do, but really it's more like a great time to pick up on that. My college friends are the ones I'll be calling up when it's time to go to a big game in Happy Valley or future bowl games, my home friends are probably gonna be a few of the people I'll be renting my first apartment with, my family will be there for me to give support and find support. While the nature of many of my relationships with these people is soon to change, I think that this year will be dedicated to keeping those links despite the changes, no matter if it's been there for 21 weeks or 21 years.

-Mikhail