so much has happened!

Wow - I've been gone awhile! Not really all that surprising, given my blogging history. But let me share a bit of what's taken place in recent weeks, and maybe I'll feel better about my absence :)

First and most important: I finally graduated! Yep, that's me - Ms. Master's Degree :) Here I am, this past Saturday, getting hooded... er, from a distance:

The commencement ceremony was more enjoyable than I anticipated (for the first year and a half of my program I pretty much figured I wouldn't walk at graduation, because c'mon - who really wants to sit through another commencement ceremony??) - in part due to great friends who gave me a serious shout-out as I walked across the stage. I love me a little bit of whoop-whoop, don't you?

We ladies went out to a great martini bar complete with fantastic desserts to celebrate afterward. Unfortunately, every last one of us drove our own cars, so no one participated in the martinis, but at least we can all sleep well knowing we were responsible ;) And hey, we feasted on a rather large piece of chocolate cake together - and everyone knows we ladies like us some chocolate!

In other news, I had my second (count 'em: One, TWO) hard drive crash in less than a year. It happened the day of a big presentation I was doing - fortunately, I had emailed my file to the person I was working for so the presentation went unhindered. But for pete's sake, it took over a month for me to get my computer back. Ridiculous! It had something to do with miscommunication followed by waiting for the new hard drive to arrive from Japan (don't they keep a stock here in the States? Someone really ought to figure that one out....) At least this time I had a decent back-up of files - unlike the first time around when I mistakenly believed Macs were indestructible and therefore had no external hard drive...ugh. So while the world stopped for me for about a month, I've been able to pick up where I left off relatively unscathed.

On the vocational front, the job search continues. Actually, it continues in the sense of keeping my eyes peeled and looking at opportunities...but in all honesty, God and I have been on quite a journey these past several weeks - and more than anything I sense Him whispering "Be content in Me for now". And with all He's been doing/saying IN me, I'm pretty okay with being content in Him. It's been like a sabbatical I didn't pursue...and it's been rich and sweet. Again, I'm very at peace in that.

Not sure if any of you readers out there have read The Shack, but it goes down in personal history as meeting, or perhaps surpassing, Abba's Child as single-most-impacting-book of my life. I won't go into it in detail here because I genuinely wouldn't want to spoil the reading for you. But suffice it to say, that read has launched some deep digging. If you have read it and ever want to engage about it, by all means comment me and we'll strike up an email or phone conversation. I'd be all over that.

In academic news, although the graduation has taken place the thesis writing continues. My completion goal is end of July - sooner if at all possible. Feel free to toss up some prayers on that one ;)

Well, I think that's it for now. If you have an inkling, leave me a note and let me know what you're up to! I lost all my bookmarks when the hard drive crashed, so I haven't been to your site in several weeks - your comment will relink me :)

Hope y'all are well!