and then, life took over.

wow.  i can't believe i haven't blogged in over 10 months.  my bad, y'alls.  not that too many "outsiders" read this thing, but if anyone was worrying, J and i are still together!  bet you thought we broke up and this whole thing became obsolete, eh?  NO SUCH LUCK, INTERNETS.

what did happen, though, was life.  working in higher education, my life is always neatly incremented into semester divisions, wherein every month brings a new set of challenges.  i've been at my current institution for four years as of july, which both seems like entirely too long and fairly short.  however, the whispers of change have been floating in my head more and more recently, and i've decided to casually job search.  i am constantly working, whether in the office, at home or on weekends, as is the nature of what i do.  J is unhappy in his current job and the demands of his stressful work and hours (12 hour days, 5 days a week plus he's on call all the time) have been a big source of contention in our relationship.  having two people looking for new jobs is stressful enough, but working out the finance and geographic logistics is even more difficult.  add to that the possibility of J returning to school to finish his degree and my desire to work less insane hours, and it's madness.  one day at a time, folks... something lindsay lohan clearly never learned.

on the upside, we've made some fantastic memories over the last ten months as well.  our first holiday together with my family went well; my family welcomed J with open arms and we even got to spend some alone time exploring my hometown together.  in february, we went snow tubing in wisconsin for my birthday and had a great time.  we did a whirlwind tour of the US in june, traveling to atlanta to see two of my college friends get hitched, then on to las vegas for some gambling fun and phoenix to catch a diamondbacks game at chase field.  most recently, over labor day weekend, we traveled to washington, dc for J's birthday.  we took in both an orioles and a nationals game, and took my 2 year old nephew to the national zoo for a (very hot) day.  without our traveling lately, i think we'd be two rather ugly people... our trips have been constant sources of fun and milemarkers along the way when we've been terribly stressed.

in closing, i promise to update more often!  with my recent discovery of google reader, i'm finding a renewed interest in blogging.  keep me on my toes, folks!

hakuna matata,
e