Here I am, back at work. All the anxiety about work people "finding me out" and gossiping about me has vanished. It was appear that I am still competent in my job, and that there are not stacks of emails complaining about me. Post vacation doubts have now mostly evaporated. On another note, Jessica decided to resign. So, if anyone is interested in a position at Northwestern University, please let me know. It is a Program Assistant II position that handles the administrative affairs of our graduate program. Now would be a great time to start because all the busy things are out of the way for the year.

Tim is gone on another business trip tonight, so after I compulsively vacuum the floors and straighten up the rest of the apartment I will a start tapping out the my vacation story. Since I haven't written in over a week it is sure to have tons of details and will be an interesting read...I promise. I think for now, I am going to write it first and then create and abstract and post the abstract here. Then if you want the in depth version I will be happy to email it to you.

On Saturday when we got home, I was happy to see that I got a rejection letter from the U of Milwaukee for that advisor position. Probably the same for the Madison one, and Tim got an email from Epic asking for more information. We shall see how that pans out. I will look again for jobs later this week. Tim is currently struggling with a life decision, mirroring Xtian's recent life decision. (That being...what to DO with his life and whether or not it will be successful, and does that matter if you are happy?) What do you guys think Tim should do with his life? Outside opinions are welcome.

I also got three letters! One from Sigrid, one from a new penpal (introductory letter), and the second one from Virginia from Texas. Her letters are great...we have quite a bit in common in the reading realm. It is so refreshing to meet another person who seems to have read the same books I have the past couple of years. The only other voracious readers I know other than Tim is Mike and Sarah. Not that I am a voracious reader by any means. Speaking of which, Cabinet of Curiosities is great...and would you believe I saw Karin Slaughter's Kisscut book all over London! Unbelievable. While I haven't yet finished her book, I wouldn't have considered it an international best seller. Sheesh.

This week we rented: The Good Girl, Ice Age, From Hell and Godsford Park. It will be nice to sit and knit while watching a movie or something. Sometimes the best things in life are getting back to nice habits...