Not-So Rockin'

Did anyone else see Dick Clark on New Year's Eve? I think that sitting there listening to him speak as the ball was dropping was the very moment that I decided that there was no way I could get out of moving. So I'm headed halfway across the country in about 6 weeks. I have commitments here up until then, and I don't want to keep going back and forth (it's an 18-hour drive). Yesterday I quit all of the committees in which I participated and I quit my other teaching job earlier in the week. In the next few weeks I have to pack up and store all of my belongings and find a tiny, furnished, short-term lease apartment that I can afford 1000 miles away. Just the added bonus activities one wants the semester before defending their thesis. I am hoping to only be in the new place for 3-4 months before I can come back here and move again to wherever I can find a job (or a Starbucks that's hiring).

I saw my advisor today for the first time in about 2.5 months. What would have been a 3 minute conversation last fall took over an hour today. The good news is that he is in good spirits. Sadly, his right side is almost completely paralyzed and his speech is pretty bad. I don't know how he ranks on the scale of recovering stroke victims, but I don't see him ever returning to work again. He knows he won't ever teach again, but thinks he can still do research. I just don't know how he will. It's sad.

At any rate, I hope everyone had lovely Christmas and New Year's holidays. I didn't get to do nearly as much visiting with friends & family as I had hoped I might, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes. 2006 has got to be better. I know that much.