No change is good change unless you really need some...or something

Yes, yes I am alive. Geez. I had no idea that you all missed me so much.

What to say…what to say.

First of all, I was just reading an article about the confession of Khalid Sheik Mohammed at Guantanemo. (He confessed to being themastermind behind 9/11.) They mentioned in the article that he spoke mostly in Arabic with some broken English. "Broken English" is a funny idiom, don't you think? I mean, if someone told me that I speak a "kaputes Deutsch", I am relatively certain that I would be heart-broken.

So, what has been going on? Well, not much really, I have to admit. I don't have a lot of news to report.

On February 28th, I woke myself up from a terrible fear within me. My mind had been, through the night, calculating what must happen if I were to finish all of my requirements before going back to Kansas in May and complete my doctorate. It sort of felt like that moment from the Fifth Element where the President after being counseled by Priest Cornelius says "General, I have a doubt." The General responds simply "I don't, sir." And fires on the large, evil entity, making it larger and eviler indeed.

"I have a doubt." I said to myself. So, I fretted the whole day about it, as I tried to detangle the giant web of complicated timing that is my doctorate, my auditions, and my job. Eventually, I understood the implications of having May as an end date for my trip to America to complete everything….that I would have to make the choice between devoting all of my time and energy to my doctorate and that alone, or would have to change the date to something later if I plan on doing any auditions or even preparing for them.

So, I called my advisor and he whole-heartedly agreed that I should spread it out over more time. I will be completely free to devote my time to such things in the middle of July. I probably will not be gainfully employed in the Fall, or, if I am, it will certainly not be until October. So, I am toying with the idea of when exactly to go back. I think September might be the best bet. September travel is about half the price of a trip in August, and it is cooler. The kids will be in session there in Lawrence, and all of the people on my committee will certainly be there. September might be the best bet…