Matt has earned his two weeks vacation. It’s almost midnight and I’ve finally finished packing. After contemplating driving the 14 hours to Chattanooga to visit my folks, I finally broke down and bought a plane ticket (am I the last person in the world to discover Travelocity.com?). I would have riden Greyhound, but none of the terminals close to me (the nearest one being an hour and a half from here) has long term parking, so there wouldn’t have been anywhere to leave my car for the 2 weeks.

I almost decided to call off my Christmas vacation. What with the terrible weather, I’m not looking forward to driving even the 4 hours to the Kansas City Airport in the snow. But then I thought back to the fact that since I moved to this godforsaken town 7 months ago, I have left the city limits exactly 3 times — only once overnight (and that was to go to a conference in Iowa). So I really need to get away for a spell.

When I return, my batteries will be recharged and I’ll be able to face the semster with a much better attitude than I ended this past semester. Hopefully the knowledge that I’ll be applying for employment elsewhere for the next academic year will do wonders to buoy my spirits.

Updates to this site will be sporadic over the next two weeks as I’m forced to suffer using my parents’ dial-up AOL connection. It may be all I’m able to do just to keep up with my daily amount of email.