All the Little Animals

If you have a family that you love being with and dreams of big things in your head, grad school can be living hell. I've been working every day for the last month and a half. The only reason I am able to write today is that I've worked myself sick...and still have two weeks until I'm finished sampling. However, I see the terminus approaching. The news (not bad, but not necessarily good, either) is that I can be finished with school in December. The idea after that is to start my own consulting business, if I can. I'll start with what I know best--forestry--and expand from there. I'll be working for and with myself, which means I'll be able to travel and spend time with my family (and Dan, of course), while doing something I love. I know I'll be plenty busy, too, but it'll be a different kind of busy.

I hate depending on the future to stay upbeat, but the present kind of sucks at the moment. I've been enjoying the enjoyable parts, but trudging through the work has proven to be very draining. The consolation is in the fact that I am building a good foundation for that future outside of school. I am still reconnecting with friends and extended family, and Meredith, Zachary, and I have even picked up some pets. We have two adorable Guinea pigs, now, named Bruce (solid black with short, satin fur) and Bruno (white with tan head markings and saddle, a ridgeback pattern to his short hair, and red eyes), both named without help by a three-and-a-half-year-old little boy. Bruce's namesake is the shark from Finding Nemo, and I don't know where Bruno came from. We think it's something from daycare, though. Let's see if the pig himself knows:

qiopu4h6ngpoyuqw345 gewriotug we3r6+7jho\p=

I guess that's what I get for putting a Guinea pig on the keyboard. And what better way to end the day's message than to mix nature with technology?