First posting from Cali!

I'm finally taking some time to post something, and I figured I'd try this new blog site. I like LiveJournal, but...

So Livermore is really nice. It's hot here, but it hasn't been that bad. We have a nice breeze and the air smells sweet.

I'm really depressed. I miss my Brandy Wyne. She was the best border collie ever born; she was an angel. But I guess she really is now. Mama was right. She thought it would hit me hard once I got out here that she's gone. Things were too hectic and stressful at the time. I had enough trouble getting out of bed every morning to just keep going as it was. I guess I was so used to just pushing forward that I did it with her death, too. Now that I don't have to focus on just surviving, I can deal with losing her. Even though she wasn't in any pain from the cancer eating her alive, it still feels like the cruelest thing in the world to have happen. And I want her back with her soul and personality intact, but with the cancer gone. I can't have that. All I want is to hold her again.

What a cheery first blog. Wow, I'll bet you're happy you read this.

I did figure out a real plan for my Ph.D thesis. And I made a new contact with a real expert in the field who wants to be added as a co-advisor. He is the tank guy who gave one of our colloquia at Notre Dame and put random tank trivia in his presentation to keep us all awake. People still talk about him. His university is in Australia, so I may bet to go there some time. Which I would totally love! Traveling more would be wonderful.

Alex spent half the night in my room last night. Mama went looking for him and there he was, and he wouldn't leave to go sleep with her. It makes me really happy that he loves me so much, but I'm sad that he's so unhappy I'm gone. He's such a loving bundle of white fur! Kelsey is still moping about me being gone. She hears me on the phone, wags her tail a little, and walks away. She likes to hear my voice because it's the only contact with me she has for now, but it reminds her I'm not there.

Okay, now that I've thoroughly depressed everyone who reads this, I'm going to go read some stuff on helium shell flashes.