I’ve tried to open a bank account twice in the four weeks since I returned to the US. In neither case did it go well, but in both cases it was for the same reason: I don’t have enough money to warrant a bank account. The problem is, I really need one in order to pay my bills, and since there is no Bank of America within an hours drive of where I live, I am forced...

I love driving my mom’s pick-up truck, because it’s old, grey, kind of ugly, and it squeaks when you go over bumps in the road. What pleases me about all of that is that it makes me look like a breath of fresh air when I get out of that old clunker. You’d never expect something as good looking as me to come out of somehting as ugly as that. It’s like what my...

Living with my mom can sometimes be confusing. Like the house is immaculately clean, yet things still go missing on a daily basis. In fact, just this morning I pulled a pair of scissors from the kitchen drawer and not 30 seconds after my mom entered the room they were gone. “Mom, did you put those scissors away?” I asked, worrying that I had gone mad. “Of...

I haven’t written anything I’m proud of lately. In fact, I’ve hardly written lately. The reason: I have been busy. You know, focusing on finding work (for money this time), figuring out where I left all my crap, gathering it together and unpacking it all at my mom’s house, where I now live. Yup, that is where my epic journey ends: at home, with mom. I know...

Before I left for Bali I lived in Boston for more than 3 years without a car. This turned out to be a good thing because it was easier for me to learn to drive a motorbike in Bali, since I didn’t have much experience driving on the US side in recent years. When I returned to the US, I realized I had gained more experience driving on the “other” side of the...