loose ends coming out of the woodwork

I've got less than a week left in the States, now. Even though I've busy over the last six months or so, for some reason it begins to look like I've had all sorts of time I haven't used. Oh well. At any rate, I just completed another week and a half up at the sugar beet farm in western Minnesota, driving from 2am to 2pm when the weather permitted. I was up there with five of my friends, which created an atmosphere of camaraderie in spite of the sophomoric pranks (Jordan is trapped in the bathroom by welders placed in front of the door; one wakes up to a blasting furnace, burners and stove on, and windows shut, on a particularily hot afternoon while desperately trying to sleep before the night shift begins). Driveshafts were broken freely, diesel flowed like wine; the intoxicated teased their friends over the CB. O Beet Lift, wherefore art you truncated in your radiance? &c, &c.

It appears that I have a job in South Korea all lined up for me! I fly out this Saturday, and upon arrival I must prepare a work visa application (that I need to be in Japan to process), and then I'll be teaching ESL until next summer sometime. As I'm following my girlfriend Noelle over, certain aspects of this job lend it an auspicious quality: I'll have an apartment across the street from her, and will likely be her coworker, not to mention we'll have the same J-term break during which we'll probably do some backpacking in China. Overall, I'm more or less thrilled. The list of people on craigslist who want to buy my car is long, Ixtlan (my dog) will be well taken care of by my friend Joel Heaslip, and I've got some fantastic material to bite into over the coming weeks and months: 'Foucault's Pendulum' by Umberto Eco, 'First Circle' by Alexsander Solzenhitsyn, and 'the Dictionary of the Khazars' by Milorad Pavic. I have read almost no fiction since being back in the States, and I'm really looking forward to diving back in.

The latest record still hasn't been mixed, and it might be a while. Everybody's been busy, and I haven't felt like doing all the work this time around, and so it sits. With any luck it will be up on the site someday.

Here's to autumn, and another trip; also to you. Cheers!