One wedding and a (metaphorical) funeral

Well, the tumbleweeds have been blowing through this blog for quite some time now, and I've been faced with the question of whether or not I should simply go ahead and let the thing die a somewhat dignified death. For now, I think not. There are still quite a few things I'd like to do with this medium (including my own site design), but they'll have to be put on hold for a while. In the meantime, I'd like to get my posting back up to somewhat respectable levels. The rub with blogging and journaling is that, if you let too much time elapse between posts/entries, there forms a backlog of things that you want to write about that is so immense, you end up never writing again because you simply can't address it all. Rather than fall into that trap, I'm just going to avoid posting about most of what's happened in the past month. Or, rather, I'm going to briefly and inadequately address some of what's happened and then hopefully elaborate on a few aspects in future posts.

First, one of my absolute best friends, Carr, got hitched. Carr and I were casual acquaintances in high school and became close friends in college at UGA. Since we've been friends he's introduced me to great music, entertained me with epistemological debates, challenged me in a way that only great friends can, listened to me recount fears and hopes, called bullshit on me when necessary, shared a basement room that can only be described as revolting, and told me the best joke about beef stroganoff that I've ever heard in my life. He and Tiffany, also a great friend of mine, have been together since anyone can remember, and it was a great privilege to be a part of their wedding and to see all of my old friends again. As I said at their rehearsal dinner, it is a very special and strong relationship that can endure the trials of high school, the transition to college, and the general anomie of the journey into adulthood; Carr and Tiffany's relationship has not just endured these things, it has flourished throughout them. I count myself fortunate to be a small part of their lives.


More pictures (though not very many) are here.

As for the funeral, well, that would be my life as a graduate student that was officially laid to rest. I applied for and was granted a leave of absence, so the possibility for resurrection is always open, but the stone that now seals off that aspect of the last three years is one that I'd rather not see rolled away any time soon. My ties were the program were completely severed when the book review wrapped up its stint at UNC and was sent on its way to Indiana University last Monday. After the last box was packed, we made for Acme and a celebratory bottle of wine. It was somewhat bittersweet: I was leaving the program, Dustin was moving to Syracuse, Erin was going on the job market, Greg was returning to his job at UNCG. But I was tired of working two jobs at once, and ready to sever the last of my connection to UNC. I'll miss the people I worked with, but not the work. That is true as well of graduate school in general.

To balance things out, I've begun my new life working on public policy and economic development issues at The Agency. I won't elaborate on that now, except to say that it has been keeping me extremely, extremely busy. I'll have more to say soon about the transition to the working world and what exactly it is that I'm doing.

Oh, and Ashley and I have begun the process of searching for a house. We've secured a real estate agent, met with several lenders regarding mortgages, toured many properties, and came within an inch of making a formal offer on a place just a couple of days ago. I have plenty more to say about this as well, and a lot of advice to solicit from my friends more experienced in this department, but for now I've simply got to get myself out from behind a computer screen.