Hello Winter

It’s official. Today was the earliest day in recorded history for snowfall in State College, PA. And I’m talking REAL snow (not quite as good as Utah, but it's the real stuff). Although it started out as a rain/snow mixture that turned into slush, by noon it was real snow and the flakes haven’t stopped dropping. Because the snow is so wet it hasn’t accumulated too much (about an inch now), but it sure is beautiful. Too bad it’s not mid November/December. I guess it’s time to get that new winter coat I’ve been putting off purchasing. At least now there is a reason I’m not seeing the sun. It hasn't exactly been two weeks since I said I wasn't quite ready for Fall. Well, that season went particularly quickly. Hmmm, welcome winter.

Not Ready for Fall

So it's been more than two weeks since we came back from the Mediterranean. Oh how I miss it. It seems we came back to Pennsylvania in the midst of fall. The weather has been so cold and rainy. But we have found joy in the simple things (e.g., seeing the sun, breaking 50 degrees, etc.). Projections say this could be one of the coldest winters in the north east--I'm hoping that doesn't mean one of the coldest winters ever. Maybe it's supposed to be one of the coldest winters in the last 10 years. Either way, I hope projections are wrong. Oh well, no sense fretting about it now. I should just embrace it. Brrrrrrrrrr

Prior to our Italy trip Richard and I commonly said, "after Italy we'll xyz." Well, Italy is over and life is getting back to normal, whatever that means. I guess it means no more stressing about conference papers, book chapters, or trying to get homework done while preparing for our European adventure. But even when we arrived back in the United States I had homework to complete and an exam to prepare for. Fortunately it appears that my exam preparation paid off, even though I completely freaked out in the middle (okay, more the latter part) of the test. You would have thought I have never taken a test before. I left my structural equation modeling exam thinking I had completely failed it. Well, through some kind of tender mercy I only missed one point. How did that happen? I still don't quite know. Now that all of my imminent deadlines and tests are past I will have a little time to put up pictures of Italy and share some of our incredible adventures, so stay tuned...