Touchdown

Oh, moving. It is so humbling to constrain your life within cardboard, so frustrating to realize how much junk you own, so scary, in it's way to scuttle like a hermit crab between shells. In packing up our belongings I was rather gratified to learn that by volume we own more books than anything else, though kitchen implements and clothing were jockeying for a close second.
Needs are needs and I can't really gainsay that, but there are so few material belongings that I actually care about when the chips are down - it makes me wonder at the fact that we haul all of this other nonsense through life with us. There are days I really yearn for a simple and somewhat ascetic life - I think my ideal retirement would be setting up a secular "monastery" with simple furnishings and a sustainable farm and a really good library and some excuse for communal singing. You know, we're all so used to putting in eight hour days for our livelihood already, I wonder if that wouldn't cover the chores are work necessary to meet the needs of a small group of people. Because having eight hours to sleep and eight hours to read and discuss and break bread and make music sounds pretty ideal. Maybe that'll be the next next project.
All this to say we've arrived safely in Arizona, are settling in, and have managed to avoid both melting and spontaneously combusting so far.
After loitering around for three hours waiting for our number to come up, Christine and I were both informed by our respective academic advisors that we had been hopeless optimistic about our educational timetables. We're gonna be here a while. But it's good. I miss Seattle, but I feel being here really brings a sharper focus to our goals. And it is so wonderful watch Christine interact with my family, I am a heartily blessed man.
Postings should become more regular as a routine (Ha!) is established. Thanks all for reading, and I'll blather at you again soon.
-Ian