September starts...

...in an odd way. More endings and beginnings. The woman I've been seeing and I have decided to not see each-other anymore. This time, it's a more bilateral decision. She is a really wonderful woman, and I feel blessed to have had that relationship with her, but we have different wants and desires for the future, and it simply makes our lives incompatible in a number of really important ways. So we've decided to dial it back to a friendship. I'm thankful that we're going to try and foster a friendship after all is said and done: she's a person I want in my life.

I really need to focus on myself right now. I know that sounds selfish, but honestly, I won't be very attractive to anyone (myself included) if I don't get my crap in a pile. I have a lose goal of having my B.A. by 2012, and my M.A. by 2014, so I can get twenty solid years of teaching and writing in before I retire. I think it's do-able. I have more credits than I thought that transfer, so I think by the time I get my maths & sciences out of the way, I should only have about a term's worth of 300-400-level work to do before I get my degree.

Part of that degree will hopefully be a certification in E.S.L. (English as a Second Language) teaching. I haven't pitched the dream of mine that I've had for a long time to go teach abroad in someplace like Vietnam, Thailand or India. We'll see what the world has in store.

But all that said, I now know that school needs to be put off until the winter '10 term due to finances. I have about $5k in grants available to me every year, but I started too late in the year to get financing in place, so if I went this term, I'd have to pay for it out of pocket, which I simply can't do. So I'll just wait and hit the ground running in Jan/Feb '10.

Anyways, a brief update from the field. Watching the Packers play the Bears while getting ready to go do Sunday Sanzen service. Nice and cool tonight.

I love Fall...