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Dear all,
Hope you having a nice holiday/solstice season. Would you believe that I have finished everything for my degree program. I made my defense on the 17th and turned in my final copy of the ~100 page thesis on the winter solstice. Of course this degree took so long that I think any person off the street could've done it, but it is done. Yeah/rah. So I'm broke and homeless, but that's ok (well the homeless part anyway.) I'm couch surfing around Missoula, which is a snap given the amount of time I've been around here. In fact I have house sitting jobs which almost takes the fun out of couch surfing since I don't have that urgency of finding new places to stay constantly. (Rule 1 of couch surfing: keep moving so no one gets sick of you.)
The plan is to say my farewells to Missoula and leave around the 13th of January, spend some time in Portland then head down to the Bay Area, couch coasting all the way. Hopefully some friends down there are still willing to find a place with me and we can move in at the beginning of February. I've been looking for work half heartedly and will have to kick it into gear soon.
I am really looking forward to starting a new life in Oakland (or surrounding area). I'm trying to avoid teaching for a while, but who knows. For those who haven't heard I took a trip down there over Thanksgiving (in fact half of my stuff is in a friend's attic in Berkeley) and despite some pain in the neck times, I really enjoyed the trip. It made me anxious to get on with big city life. Although I am taking my skiis and camping equipment too. Yeah!
I'm looking forward to living in a place people actually visit (as opposed to just always want to visit) so I will get to see more of you non Montana residents (and the air fares for me to take trips are so much cheaper). I'm feeling a bit older and more cynical about life in general, but talking about the future cheers me up.
Have a wonderful New Year and I plan on emailin' a lot the next few days so you won't have hear from me only in a form letter hopefully. (Feel free to write though and to hear about your life and it moves you up the list!)
with love and friendship,
James