First time for everything.

So I figured with all the changes coming about in my life, a blog might be the most effective way to keep everyone up-to-date on where I am and how I'm doing.

By the way, if I haven't talked to you lately...I'm doing GREAT!

I only have one month left of work at Divers Alert Network before I join the ranks of the unemployed, my last day is June 30th. Then Gabriel and I are packing up, headed to Ohio for one week in early July and then off to Thailand for one month. We will be in Thailand from July 8th-August 8th with a two day layover in Honolulu. We fly back into RDU on the 8th and shortly thereafter, head West to our new home in Longmont, CO. I will be attending Naropa University (Boulder, CO) in the fall to pursue a Masters of Religious Studies with Sanskrit. Yes I realize this is like the oldest, unspoken language on earth but it will help me when I am studying all of the ancient texts that were written in it. Hopefully this will lead to a PhD program in the near future (it's a 2 year program), but for now, I'm just going to enjoy the ride.

The first picture below is my school. There are three campuses. My campus is comprised of about 5 buildings. That's it. At least I won't be running from one class to the other. Naropa was founded in 1974 by a Buddhist monk named Chogyam Trungpa. There are around 1200 students and 2/3 of them are grad students. You can't tell from this photo but there are gorgeous mountains to the right...you have to come visit us!

The next picture is of our new house in Longmont, CO. We move in on August 15th. The owner is a stone sculpter and is leaving some of her artwork which is really cool. There is not a house directly behind it so we have a view of the mountains. There is a big backyard too for the dogs to run around in. We really could not have asked for a more perfect place to live, esp. at such an affordable price. There is a guest bedroom so please come visit!

Longmont is only about 10 miles from Boulder and I will be able to take the bus to school. Hopefully Gabriel will be able to find a cool job with the park or forest service out there. We are near Rocky Mountain National Park and tons of city/state parks.

Ok, well that's the update so far. More on the move and trip to Thailand later. Hope all is well!