Autumn Arrives

Wow, ya... so it's been over a month since my last post. I don't think I'll ever get used to how quickly time goes by. Some brief highlights from the past weeks:

-- Coming back from Africa, I wasn't sure what I was going to do as far as employment goes, but for now I'm going to just keep working at Halcyon. It's enough income to take care of my bills, and I'm a manager now, and it provides me extra free time that I need, and there are some great social perks. So, despite some recent drama that had me on the edge of quitting, I'm probably going to stay there for a few more months at least. Working nights in the middle of the downtown-Warehouse-District social scene can be pretty crazy sometimes, but, there are a lot of reasons why I kinda love it too. And besides, if our economy keeps sinking into a deeper recession, I think alcohol and coffee are two staples that folks aren't likely to give up.

-- Celebrations!! Between lots of birthday parties, an awesome engagement party (congrats to Kelly and Mo!), and ACL Music Festival -- seems like almost every free night in the most month has involved lots of great music, drinking, dancing, and enjoying life with some of my favorite people. I know life isn't always going to be this enjoyable, so I'm definitely soaking it up as much as I can right now.

-- Future plans: Well, these are still in the works, but I signed up to take my GRE this month, and so my goal for October is to get that knocked out and to get my grad school applications underway. Prospects for the moment include the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT, Clinton's School for Public Service in Little Rock, and an Urban Ministry program at Eastern University in Phili. I'm just lookin to see what doors open first, then I'll figure out plans from there.

-- Current events: I finally had to make myself go an a fast from any news about the presidential campaigns. I was getting way too emotionally involved (with anger being the most prominent emotion), and reading through the election news cycle was taking up way too much time. I've known for a long time now that Obama has my vote in November, so I decided that there was no point in making myself upset over the completely outrageous and immature behavior that has characterized this whole event... What I HAVE tried to keep up with though is all the news about the developing economic crisis. My expensive liberal arts undergrad degree has done little to help me understand all the in-and-outs of the mess on Wall Street, so I keep digesting as many news articles and NPR/BBC reports as I can. I've still got a ton to learn, but I think it's safe to conclude that confusing greed for ambition is not really going so well for anyone at the moment.

That's it for now... gonna try to be better about keeping this updated. Much love!