New News

The past few weeks have been pretty transitional ones for us, with lots and lots of changes. Here's an update for the uninformed. Since August, we've acquired:  

A new apartment - Hunting for rental housing, particularly in Provo, is among my very least favorite things. After weeks of growing increasingly discouraged by sifting through hundreds of online ads for dirty, dingy, dated apartments within walking distance of BYU, we finally stumbled upon the perfect place. With a 9-month contract, 2 bedrooms, all of those little electric luxuries that make daily life easier, and a good location in a relatively green neighborhood, I'm oh-so-glad we held out for this one. It's nothing too fancy, but it's comfortable, and we're glad to have our own walls back, filled with our own belongings, and our own life among them. 

 A new schedule - Drew's early mornings and long days with Big-D are officially over, and his life as a student has officially resumed. We still see plenty of the early morn', but his schedule is definitely more predictable, although I think he'd take a nasty work schedule over the predictability of his homework and impending exams right about now. Now that I'm no longer trapped in an empty house without transportation or friends or furniture, my schedule is a little more enjoyable, too, these days. That free schedule, filled with sewing and cooking and exercising and reading and erranding whenever I please, is about to change, thanks to...

A new job - I was beginning to think it would never happen, but I was finally offered a job as a Lab Technician in a biology lab at the University of Utah. No, my job has nothing to do with the Master's I just finished in public health, but it's a job - one that promises to be both interesting and flexible - so I'll take it (I did take it). I haven't started yet (my background is still being thoroughly searched for skeletons), but I know I'll be doing a little bit of everything one might do in a biology lab, from taking care of critters only to later dissect them to ordering and maintaining supplies. After a hiatus from the world of science labs, it feels good to be going back into a biology department, and I'm excited to get started.

New GRE scores - This one is most exciting, not in and of itself, but for what it means (I can assure you that quite the contrary, taking the GRE was far from exciting). Over two and a half years ago, I withdrew from grad school, packed up my belongings (with lots of help from my parents), gave most of them to my sister, and put Durham, NC and doctoral study in the rear-view mirror (there is a memory of that week documented here). I did so knowing that the grand adventure in the west upon which I was embarking would be neither small nor short, but hoping that it might bring me back east and back to grad school eventually. Right now, we're getting ready to do our part in directing our own fates, by (re)applying to grad schools and jobs in cities along that most lovely of U.S. coasts, in hopes of calling it home again sometime sooner than later. Taking the GRE was just one little, initial step in that relocation process.

A new haircut - This is perhaps less significant than our other recent developments, but Drew did get a fancy new haircut this weekend. Actually, it's not really that fancy at all, considering it was given by me on a kitchen stool in our bathroom, but it does look quite nice, if I do say so myself. He hadn't had a trim all summer, the poor rag-a-muffin, and with big meetings with potential future employers coming up in the next few weeks, he has to be looking sharp. 

And a new camera - This was a lovely surprise, delivered right to our door by the friendly postman, sent from our loving parents/in-laws in Georgia. We haven't had many opportunities to whip it out yet, but there's a hike planned for tomorrow morning for that very purpose. For now, snapshots of ourselves on our couch are all the test driving we've done. 

There are lots of changes coming and going in our lives right now, most of them very welcomed. We keep catching ourselves in moments of realization that we're embarking on a year of lasts - our last fall in the Wasatch Front, for starters - so we're making a point now to revel in it all, rather than wish it away. It's going to move at its own pace, regardless of our wishes, anyway, so we might as well enjoy the ride.