six months and 982 miles later.

Six months ago I was sitting in my Iowa office. Today, I am in my apartment in Atlanta getting ready to begin my Ph.D. on Monday. I could say a lot has changed in the past six months but I don't think "a lot" is a very accurate descriptor. I packed up my lousy Iowa apartment and moved everything to a fabulous apartment in Atlanta. Although I briefly considered commuting to Iowa from Atlanta, I ended up quitting "life with decent paycheck" to return to "life with small graduate stipend." In between I had a brief layover in "life with no job." In between that I stumbled upon Adam and eventually brought him and his kitty home with me for good. While in "life with no job" I took approximately seven thousand pictures of the kitty all of which are stored on my iphone in case of any sudden increase in stress. I also developed several new addictions (Frosted Mini Wheats, Magnum PI, and Lego Batman) and successfully maintained a few old addictions (twitter, instant netflix watching, and peanut butter english muffins). This summer I kayaked, white water rafted, went to movies, concerts, and plays, visited Florida, ate at all sorts of fantastic new places, successfully navigated traffic and downtown Atlanta, and made the new place seem more home-y in a few months than the old place ever did in three years. Life here is hot and busy but above all, life here is incredible.