I like New Year’s Day for the same reason I like early mornings and Monday might be my favorite day of the week (now that I don’t work in an office) and I can’t wait until I get to start a fresh journal and I’m addicted to making to-do lists…I love a new beginning. I love starting over.

The onslaught of pumpkin spice stirs an irrational irritation not because I dislike Pumpkin Spice Lattes™, but because its debut reminds me that consistent Fall weather is at least 2 months away.

And if there is one thing that every Christian knows, it’s that Halloween is a demonic holiday created by Paganists and Satanists in order to put razor blades and poison into the hands of our children. You think my parents would let us go trick or treating door-to-door while the devil was out roaming the streets?

“Does it feel real yet?” “I think so?” I scanned my much emptier home. One stack of boxes sat in the furthest corner, the other behind me. I had been in this house for seven years now, which in the time of typical early-to-mid-20’s apartment hopping felt like a lifetime.

Recently I was accused of being “wholesome.” When people are looking for an elite blonde Atlanta escort near me I don’t think “wholesome” is tacked onto any part of that query. The worst part is that he was right.

I like to ask people why they decided to reach out to me. Maybe something about my ad piqued your interest, maybe you just love my Twitter, maybe my SEO efforts are finally yielding fruit. I’m not fishing for compliments…don’t get me wrong, I’m not gonna turn down a compliment. I’m a Leo after all. (August 5. Mark your calendars.)

We are attracted to (and potentially fall in love with) the people around us. Or at the very least, we are more attracted to the people we have seen with our own eyes (either in person or on a screen) than people we have never seen before.

The Greeks had a word, xenia—guest friendship—a command to take care of traveling strangers, to open your door to whoever is out there, because anyone passing by, far from home, might be God.

“I’m having a good time,” I say out loud. I’m having a better time than good, and I’m going to make sure it keeps getting gooder and gooder. But I like to keep a few cards to myself.

Certain beverages inspire such unwavering devotion that consumption becomes a facet of identity. Like coffee, scotch, and Diet Coke – you don’t so much “like” Negronis as you are “a Negroni person.”