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You know what kills me about Christmas down here? That nobody really seems to want it to be Christmas down here.

You’d think they’d love the fact that they’re in the middle of summer and having 80-degree-plus weather, are BBQing, and are holidaying with the kids…but nobody seems to really embrace it. They all grew up watching American and British holiday flicks and seem to want snow for the big day o’ Jesus’ birth.

Last week (only the second week of October) all the shops in Adelaide began putting up their Christmas displays and selling wrapping papers and such. Seeing all this so early was a bit freaky and can only be attributed to two things. One, Whoreloween — whoops, I mean Halloween — isn’t nearly as big over here as in the States, so no need to wait for the orange-and-black displays to come down before sticking up the $299 inflatable reindeer/santa/penguin snow-covered carousel. Two, the earlier stores can get these things up, the colder it is in Australia, making it seem like the snowy scenes aren’t such a dream.

But they are a dream. There is no snow down under come Christmas. Well, that is unless someone shells out the nearly $300 for this thing.

There’s a snapshot from my college graduation that every time I look at it I’m overwhelmed by a mixture of emotions. The photo itself is quite unremarkable. It’s simply a quickly snapped photo of me squeezed in between four fellow graduates, taken too far away so we all appear a bit gray from the weak flash.

But looking at the people in it always leaves me questioning what I’m doing with my life. One guy landed a coveted reporting job at The New York Times but left after a couple of years to improve his Spanish while traveling through Latin America and is now a Spanish-language reporter; the other guy worked as associate art director at Men’s Health before moving to deputy art director at Complex. One girl joined Peace Corps in Togo and is now finishing her master’s in international education. The other girl two years ago opened an art-house cinema with her husband and were recently named Entrepreneurs of the Year by their city’s business rag. And these are just the people in the picture…there’s plenty more stories for other, non-pictured, grads.

Thinking of all their successes, me and my competitive spirit are insanely jealous. Jealous that they’ve done so much in just four years. Jealous they all have a talent that I don’t. Jealous especially that they seem to have a life plan all worked out and are getting there so quickly.

Now I know to pooh-pooh what I’ve done and am doing may be insulting and thoughtless. Heck, I realize some of you reading this may be traveling vicariously through this blog and am jealous of me. But well, insulting and thoughtless? That’s me. And those who know me well must know how discontented I am to, yes, be living a dream of mine but yet be making no progress in my chosen career or life.

I thought it was these emotions that had me blubbering on to a new friend about that photo…but then I realized there is also a different set of emotions…I truly feel so lucky, honored, happy (whatever you want to call it) to know these people and count them as my friends and/or ex-classmates.

Spurring that conversation was a walk by a comic book store last week, when I immediately thought of guy #2, Tim, who had recently launched a comic magazine (you know, in all his spare time) called Comic Foundry. Although I didn’t expect to be able to buy it overseas, I had sheer disappointment when the store didn’t have it…but found out others might. So, that night I went online to find another local comic store that might carrry it — and came across a review that said, “The Life+Style section was the best part. It had a feature with four different women reacting to theoretical pickup approaches from five different comic book personalities,” and remembered that I was one of those women and now had an even broader fervor to locate a copy.

The next morning, I wandered by another store which had stocked the imported magazine (and even gave me a discount because the US dollar is so weak…sigh). Reading through, I loved it. And the design is totally Tim. When I showed it off back at the hostel, like a momma with her new pups, I knew it wasn’t just jealousy I was feeling or feel when I look at that picture of my college pals. I’m also incredibly happy my friend was able to complete his dream and also do it well. And I’m just proud of him. Of them. All of them. And inspired by them as well…

So…if you’re somewhat into comics (or want to know what pick-up lines will/won’t work on me), head to your local comic book store. And then feel free to tell me how awesome my friend is.