What's New?

Not a whole lot, actually. I'm always hesitant to write one of these "here's what's happening" posts as I don't find my own life particularly exciting. That said, I know a handful of my readers check in to see what's going on in my life. And that's largely a result of my own inability to compose personal email. What's up with that?

Autumn arrived early in Small Midwest Town: the leaves are in full change mode, the temperature has dropped into the 50s/60s (40s at night), and rain falls regularly. What happened to the beautiful 80 degree weather of a couple weeks back? I could have enjoyed that for a while longer. Alas, it looks to be an early Fall and Winter. Thankfully, I got the weed/feed on the lawn during a two day stretch without precipitation. My father would be so proud.

School zooms along for both myself and STK. I'm teaching nothing but rhetoric related courses this semester. Teaching rhetoric makes me a happy boy. I'm trying to get some research done and have no less then four research ideas bouncing around my head simultaneously. As I can't seem to focus on one project, I spend all my time thinking/reading and getting nothing written. STK still loves her new teaching position despite the commute.

TLO continues to change, grow, and evolve. If you're ever thinking of having a kid, you can forget about all those instruction manual type books you find at Barnes and Noble. The truth of the matter is that raising a kid is more or less about winging it than anything else. One week our kid is sleeping through the night, the next week he's waking up and playing from 2-3 AM. One week he loves cantaloupe, the next he's spitting it out. One week he loves daycare and blows me off when I tell him "goodbye", the next week he's going into a tear-gushing, meltdown when I drop him off. Oh, and if you just can't wait until the little person starts to walk, you might want to reconsider. How much do you enjoy chasing a child around your living quarters? Get some new runnings shoes because that's about all you're going to be doing for a while. Did I mention TLO is obsessed with Elmo? And that I can sing the words to Elmo's World? And that I've created a version that I sing to TLO? The joys of parenthood. Or is that the insanity of parenthood? I get them mixed up these days.

STK and I celebrated our third anniversary back on the 6th. Thanks to some dear friends, we enjoyed a wonderful night out on the town. Night out on the town in SMT consists of dinner at our one bistro and a trip to the locally owned ice cream joint. STK and I did much reflecting on how much our lives have changed in the last year. We went through a pretty challenging patch with the move, the Albatross, and uncomfortably tight finances and survived. This year is the year our graduate degrees payoff and we start to enjoy a more comfortable way of life.

Looking ahead, I've decided I am going to run an 8K race at the end of month. I did five miles twice last week with only a bit of pain--it's totally manageable provided I don't run hard two days in a row. Cross training and rest days have become the name of the game. While I'm nowhere near the running shape I was at the tail end of July, I'm still in decent shape.

STK and I are also looking forward to a couple nights in The Big City. We've asked T & J to watch TLO for a couple nights and they've agreed. So, we're heading out for a couple nights of Gothy goodness. The last few weeks, we've missed the Goth scene something terrible. We miss the people, the music, the clubs. As STK put it, "I miss being around people like us." That's definitely one of the shortcomings of living in a small, isolated community. The closest "scene" is three hours away. A couple nights out on the goth town will provide some much need contact with alternafolk.

And that's the news from around here. Exciting, eh?