The last few weeks have gone by in what serems like a breeze. Let me see if I can sum up the events in my life between now and then:

Tested for my license twice and passed on the second try, getting a large yellow sheet of paper which worked as a license until I received mine in the mail. Why they don’t just print out the license on the spot is beyond me, almost every other state and university on the planet prints them off while you wait. At any rate, I’m now an officially licensed Minnesota citizen.

Went apartment hunting, because they are raising my rent at Cedars 94 and I just can’t justify living there anymore. After looking at approximately 20 apartments, and calling about 40 or so, I found a nice one-bedroom apartment for less rent than I am paying now, but is south of where I am - farther from the university. However, it is on the Light Rail line (literally it runs right outside the complex), so the ride to school is still not too long and it is convenient. There are less “community” amenities, but I never really used any of the ones at Cedars anyway. The ride to school and back home will be longer - hoping to use the time to get some reading in regularly. It’s only 12 minutes to downtown by LRT - something which makes me very happy, and also a short ride to the Mall of America when the rest of the line opens in December.

Speaking of the LRT system, I rode on the sunday of opening day for a little bit just for fun with Di. It was packed (of course) but seemed to go smoothly. The highest speeds are on the part of the line which I’m moving to, which is beneficial to me of course. The system seemed to handle a lot of passengers well, we were crammed in there. Some people remarked that if it can’t move this many people, how well will it work as a mass-transit service - They should be reminded that in normal operation, more people would be leaving the train at some stops.

Di decided that she is going to move from her apartment in with a friend, which will save her a bunch of money but lose her some private space. Also she got fired from her job for no reason by a domineering bitch, gotta love that. Bad timing too - she put in her applications right before the 4th holiday and of course had to wait until this week in order to get responses. The good news: she has lots of interviews and places which want her to work for them. She’s taking it very well, and I’ve been trying to help when I can. She’s my sweetie and I hate it when she’s depressed or stressed more than normal.

Teaching classes is okay, I’ll probably post about it in another post since I have these nice categories now.

Preparing Future Faculty is progressing nicely - we are getting into creating a syllabus, filling out your CV, things like that which you just don’t get anywhere else, but are expected of you as faculty anywhere you will start as a professor. It is really a very useful class, everyone who is planning on being a professor should take it. I hope I can take the practicum next semester.

Been eating out too much, and it shows on my scale and my wallet. Need to stop by buying groceries and cooking my own meals. Watched a lot of movies with Di because it’s summer and that’s what you do in summer. Reading some good books.