A Brief Catch-Up

The last few weeks have been crazy, but I have emerged victorious... or at least I have emerged with my life. Either way, the stress has let up for a few days at least.

Last Thursday (August 9), I spent many hours in a computer lab, taking the Ancient and Medieval portions of my comprehensive exams. I spent the entire summer studying for this exam, and I feel like I passed. After investing so much time and energy, it just feels good to be done. Hopefully I'll still feel good about them when I get the grades back. Between that and the Harry Potter release party (I finished the book that Saturday evening), my life hasn't had much excitement up until that time.

After the completion of the comps, the test-takers went to Health Camp for a supper of hamburgers and milkshakes. Jess and I followed that with a trip to see The Simpsons Movie. I highly recommend it. I don't remember that last time I laughed so hard.

On Friday, my wonderful wife and I went to San Antonio for a belated over-night celebration of our one year anniversary. Our anniversary had been the previous Sunday, but due to comps, we stayed in town and she cooked a delicious meal while we had our cake. Our time in San Antonio was a nice break from the busy lives we had been living lately. We visited the Alamo and spent some time on the Riverwalk. On Saturday we visited Market Square before coming back to Waco.

This brings us today. I helped some friends move in, and in a bit, I'll be going with a friend to pick up Madden 08. I'm getting my copy at Best Buy tomorrow morning, but it'll be fun nonetheless. Tomorrow (and the rest of the week for that matter) will be spent with Madden and Michael Polanyi. I've been meaning to sit down and read through Personal Knowledge for some time, so I figure now is as good of time as any! I should also work on my paper I'm presenting at a conference in November.

With a new school year starting next week, I've done a little bit of thinking today about how different things look this year. A year ago, Jess and I were loading up the truck to make our trek down to Waco. We had been married for only 8 days, and Jess had no idea where she would get a job. I was trying to decide what classes to take, while having a good idea what I would do a dissertation on. We didn't really know anyone down here and all we had were each other. Now, we're helping other people unload trucks, we've been married a year, we know our way around here, Jess has a job, I know my classes, although I don't know what my dissertation will be on. More importantly, we've made some roots in Waco. We've met lots of great people and have made some great friends. We've found a church that we feel at home in. The best part of it all is that we still have each other.