Time to buy an umbrella

I'm sitting in my room on my day off with nothing on but box briefs. June in Korea is wet and humid. I've heard word that this weather now is nothing compared to July and August. The rainy season approaches and I am still without an umbrella. Why? Because I'm lazy. I have walked by endless numbers of stores and little side booths selling umbrellas and I have never once stopped. I stare at the umbrellas as I pass them and I think "I should really buy an umbrella", but I don't. My mission in the next seven days is to finally buy one. Being hot is one thing, but being hot and wet is a completely different kind of uncomfortable. You'd think when living in a country and noticing that all the natives have umbrellas one would think to buy one right away....yeah, you'd think but I obviously missed all the millions of clues walking around dry when I get soaked by the down pours. I've actually never seen umbrellas as big as the ones I've seen here. These are not American umbrellas. These are Korean monsoon umbrellas. They are gigantic. They have to be because rain in Korea comes from all directions. That's why everybody also wears knee high rubber boots....yet another item I have not bought but this is not all my fault. They don't really have the larger shoe sizes in this country and I wear size 12. They're out there but I need to look a little harder.

The more I think about it and review the clothes and items I decided to bring with me to Korea the more I realize what a horrible horrible job I did packing. 75% of everything I brought is unnecessary and impractical. I am actually in the process of putting all these items into a box and shipping them home. I have also come to see that I have way too much stuff. When I come home next summer I'm going to be getting rid of a lot of my things. I don't need that much stuff...here or there. It's actually kind of nice knowing I don't need so much stuff.

I probably have a condition of sorts if I'm being honest. I give stuff away all the time. I always have. Clothes, furniture, my opinions, you name it I've probably given it away. I think this may have something to do with growing up in a household that was full of things. I like my space...in every sense of the word. I don't like clutter and I don't like being unable to move around. My childhood home was always full of things and the last time I went home it still was filled to the edges with all sorts of distractions.

However, don't misunderstand what I'm writing to mean that I don't like nice things. If I'm to continue this honest revelation I should recognize the fact that I've become somewhat of a snob. I like nice things. I just don't need to have a room full of them. I like nice clothes even though some people would say all I wear are jeans and t-shirts. Some people (Danielle) would be correct. It's really the most comfortable outfit around. I'll never have a job that requires me to wear a suit all the time. Even though I look like an Ebony magazine model when I put a suit on. For those of you who are confused right now (Toby, Alex, Luke, Browny, and every other white dude with the exception of Fitty who I'm friends with) Ebony Magazine is kind of like People magazine except it predominately black folks in the pics and the articles are mostly about black people. I'm sure Alex will now go out and get a subscription. Your fascination with black people verges on the inappropriate buddy. Just thought you should know that. But I'm getting off point. I don't even own a suit these days. I actually have not owned a suit since I stopped playing football after college. I have a feeling that as a 32 year old man I'm not going to get away with not owning a suit for much longer.

Korea is helping me to sort some parts of my life out. I'm thinking about how I wanna spend the next 32 years of my life. I don't want to be stuck in an office. I need to be able to travel and experience different cultures and peeps. I now know that I want more responsibility in my next job. I have the qualifications and as time passes in Korea I'm realizing that I'm smarter and more capable than a lot of the people I have to deal with as supervisors. I don't mean that as a slight towards those people but I can't deny the fact that I'm ridiculously more qualified and organized. That might make me look like a cocky ass hole but it's really just me growing up and realizing that I can't be afraid of having a leadership position in life. I usually play it safe so that I can't be blamed if things go wrong but in the mean time I'm doing so much work to ensure that things go well. Plus I realized that everybody makes mistakes it's how you handle the mistakes that's important...corny but so true.