Home Photography Work

Return to the USA, a job, and life moving on... (01-01-05)

Hi, I’ve finally gotten around to writing a Christmas(y) type letter. Hopefully I’ll get my act together in the not to distant future and either mail it or put it online (update – I finally did put it online 6/05!)

I guess writing a general update letter is a sign of changing times in my life. For friends that I have recently moved away from, much of this will be old news, for friends from college and before, much of it might be new!

The big news of 2004 was the completion of my PhD thesis, defending the silly thing, and passing. What a relief! I now have the most expensive and least published book that I will ever own. I should formally be conferred with the degree sometime next spring.

With the completion of my studies, my reason for being in the UK disappeared. It was the logical, albeit bittersweet conclusion to the wonderful experience I had in England. Feeling like the world was my oyster, I crashed back to reality in Vermont, where my parents were kind enough to offer me free room and board. Thankfully most of the culture shock passed after a few weeks.

After several weeks of job searching I found a short-term engineering position – at my dad’s place! (Hmm, I suspect personal contacts played a role:) It should be good work, it pays the bills, and it’ll give me a chance to sort out a long-term career type job without the pressure of imminent financial ruin. The chance to live and work in Vermont for a half-year has also been providing a welcome opportunity to enjoy a proper winter, go skiing, and generally freeze all my appendages. It also seems to somehow be marking a gradual change in my life , I guess it’ll be harder to run off to some third world country for a few spontaneous weeks of travel, the tradeoff seems worth it for now though.

God Bless,