It doesn't feel like almost a month since my last post, but it's surely evidence of how fast time flies. On the upside, the days are (slowly) getting longer and this cosmic process always pleases me. Even now, with only five additional minutes in the day, the sun seems poised to stay in the sky longer.

Break began with a bang! and slowly tapered-off. Well, sort of...
I worked a lot during my first week off, while fighting a cold. After Christmas, the store is always quiet so I've had more free time to read: Julia Child's Ma Vie en France and Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Emperor of Maladies. I haven't made one visit to the USM library, deciding instead to use our town's public library; I had a card after all and I figured I should use it before its funding gets taken away or someone calls it an entitlement program.

Mel came to visit for a few days and we had a great time. Nathan comes this Friday for the weekend and I'm excited. He's one of the few people I think I could wander the city with for hours and just look at things. We both have eyes for the minutiae of life, only he sees art and I see words (and sometimes photography).

*          *          *
I've finally made up my mind about graduate school: I'm going to defer for one year. (Well...if the program director calls me back tomorrow and approves the deferral **crosses fingers**.) In that time, I really hope to find a (teaching) job and then maybe slide into a Master's program.

The job-hunting process is a bit maddening and overwhelming and I tend to stress eat my way out of things...so here's to running a lot!