For the past four months, I’ve been traveling about and haven’t had much of the necessary time nor the inclination to write. In lieu of that, I had been aggressively updating my Facebook photo albums. Being back at school for the summer will reinstate blogging as among my primary procrastination measures, so expect more content in the coming weeks, including a much-needed update to WP-Cats.

In the past I’ve always enjoyed the changes from school to work and vice-versa. The variety offered by Waterloo’s co-op program is a wonderful blessing: Working is money and free time and independence. School is community and friendships.

This time does feel different, though, and I’m not the only one feeling it.

I’m trying to be excited to go back to school, but I’m really just not. New York is a beautiful city; I’d come to love it there. Meanwhile, my connection to Waterloo this term was little more than a tuition bill and an increasingly broken and mismanaged professional development program. Here, I was in a job where I could leverage my existing skills, learn far more than I have in any academic term, and yet still make a meaningful, appreciated contribution.

I do know that I will one day be back in New York—I love too many things about it to not return. This leaving is temporary; whether back in months or years, for a few days, or for a decade, I cannot say. But I do mean to return. Leaving now is not a permanent farewell, only a temporary parting.

The #1 Matt was in town on Wednesday night, so some folks organized a meetup at the Heartland Brewery. I only took a handful of pictures, none of which turned out very well, but fortunately John Keegan has shared some nice snaps.

It was neat to chat with Matt and find out more about Automattic as a company and what some of their plans are for Wordpress. He’s a really fun, personable guy. It’s awesome to use a product with such a great spokesperson.

When I was in California a few weeks ago, Delta had oversold my return flight, so I ended up with a generous coupon to be redeemed for future Delta travel. Thus, in the process of checking out flights, I paid special attention to the offerings from Delta. Why not get my return trip to Toronto as a freebie, if I could?

Well, it turned out that the best Delta could do was around $250, so I’m saving my coupon for the future. But as I browsed the options Delta proposed to me, one in particular stood out as kind of bizarre. Surreal, you might even say. I guess these kinds of things happen when you have a computer proposing itineraries:

Read on…