My car is loaded, gas tank full, oil fresh, new air filter, new fuel filter, clean outside, clean on the inside. Only thing missing is, well, my laptop of course, I'm far to addicted to it to pack it away so soon. Hrm, note to self: you didn't pack the keyboard or mouse yet. Ok, so I'm basically ready to head back to Phoenix. I've accomplished everything I set out to do when I left Phoenix, so it's time to head home. Of course, I'll just be there long enough to unpack and repack and head to Pine Valley, CA for a week for CASI. But even with all that will go on at CASI it'll be relaxing.

With this being my last Christmas as a student, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my future. In particular, the whole idea of getting a job. See, I don't think I can fake being a student, it just costs too much, and there's really nothing else to fill my time besides a job, at least nothing legal, not that I'd be interested in becoming a criminal. To get back on track, I've always told people that I wanted to get a job in Phoenix and live there for at least a few years. It is where many of my friends are, and I'm comfortable with the city. But maybe I've been a little bit of a wus. I've been back and forth between KC and Phoenix for the past 5 years, I leave all my friends that I've made during college and come back and make new friends in Kansas and catch up with old ones. I always survive, even manage to live back with my parents who have not yet officially kicked me out. I've traveled around and through the majority of the nation, enough to know where I would and wouldn't want to spend my adult life, and to no surprise the Midwest, where I was born, and Southwest, where I went to college are the two areas that I like. Being close to old friends (where old == friend I already have) is always nice, but to think that I can't move off somewhere else and be happy is a fallacy. New places give you a new start, and starting over can present wonderful opportunities.