Yeah yeah, I know...

My last post was a couple (few) weeks ago. And honestly, I have no idea why. I've been perfectly alive, healthy and kicking. But you'd be surpirsed at how draining driving a bus can be. And since I can't remember the last couple of (few) weeks, I'll gladly recount my Spring Break trip to....*drum roll, please*


KANSAS!!!!!!

Yeah, Kansas. In all CAPS. With seven exclaimation points. That's how you spice up a story about a trip to Kansas. And yes, it is very much more than The Wizard of Oz and lame jokes about Toto and Dorothy.

It's also prairie grass. And angus bulls. And scenic overlooks of prairie grass and angus bulls. I think I saw a prairie fire way off yonder. But that's neither here nor there. Well, I guess it is there...in grand ol' Kansas.


I know there are questions, such as, "um, why on earth were you in Kansas?" And if that wasn't your question, I asked it for you. Now I'll answer it for you.

In a nutshell, this economy sucks. As my previous posts have stated, Halbastram was let go from his wonderful architecture job over a year ago due to the fact that the construction industry is deader than disco. And I never had a "career", so I really didn't contribute much to the household other than what I made from my lovely retail jobs. I loved those jobs and don't consider my time in retail as time wasted. Some people work in an office; I loved to peddle clothes and toys and discounted food/household goods. With things looking grim on our end, after much discussion, we decided that the best thing for us would be more schooling and re-tooling. He's decided to go back to school to study Education and possibly become a math teacher as a back-up plan. Me, I decided to combine my love of writing with my love of politics and go for my Master's in Political Science with an emphasis on Journalism.

After much debate and research on which school would be right for us, we settled on Halbastram's alma mater. And thus began our journey to Kansas, to check out the school and to discuss a game plan with professors in our chosen courses of study. Also, for me, it was a chance to sit down with the head of the Poly Sci department to express my remorse for having such lackluster grades during my undergrad years and to show him that my aim in the Master's program is sincere and that I can handle the work.

Being back on a real college campus really brought back a lot of old memories. Nights in the boys' dorm, crashing parties at the Theater House, getting mad at a box of Skyy Blue because it was empty, Spring Break in Daytona Beach...now that I think about it, I kind of know why my grades were awful. All of these memories involve liquor...

At any rate, being an adult now, I've finally figured out what it is I'm meant to do. Political journalism. I get excited just thinking about all of the trouble I could cause. If you know anything about Illinois politics, you know that the landscape is just lush with wonderful characters with tales as far as the eye can see. Or as long as my pen can write.

If things work themselves out, we can expect to make our permanent journey to the center of America by August. I'm sure I'll miss big city living, but I know we'll be back someday: there's still a ton of my crap my mother wants out of her basement.