Moving (well, moved now)

Yeah, it's been a while since I've updated anything here. That's mostly because I had nothing new to report. However, I have made some very big changes and should probably update this.

I have, after many, many years, have finally finished grad school. I don't yet have my diploma but I DO have a letter certifying I have earned my degree. I have been in an all out sprint to finish everything as fast as possible since October-ish. It was miserable, including almost all of Christmas break. I defended Jan 6 and passed!!! I had some edits that I tried to turn around as fast as possible because I accepted a post-doc position in Boston that was slated to start Feb 1.

I finished my last edits on my submission on Jan 31 and left for Boston Feb 1. I had intended to just go directly East, but Mother Nature had other plans meaning a nasty storm across Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska slated to dump ~15 inches of snow. It probably didn't, but I didn't want to find out. It was either sit in my apartment with my car fully loaded for another weekend or head south and spend it with family. I completely surprised Katy and Micah, arriving around 9 pm Friday evening.



Driving pics: Canyonlands




Apache Nation





And then the batteries died...

I spent the entire weekend, leaving early Monday and drove 1200 miles in 16 hours to get back on track with the other stop-overs I had scheduled, including the farm and the Catskills. The farm was great and included a day of hanging with the 2nd cousins. It had been far too long since I'd been there. Next, Bruce was kind enough to 1) let me drive the Hummer and 2) take me for an 8 hour hike. After all that time in the car, getting out was great.

Escarpment Trail:






The weather was getting a little scary and I did leave when the snow started falling pretty heavy, but after dropping in elevation, it wasn't even raining. I finally arrived home Saturday at 10:30 pm. And so ends one chapter of my life and begins another.