There's No Place Like Home

I can't believe it, but it looks like I'm going to buy a house and become a real Bakersfield resident. Last week Grace and I went out looking at houses, and put in an offer on a house on our first day. I was always kind of freaked out about the responsibility of owning a house, but it feels right this time. The problem is that this is a short sale, that means that the owner couldn't pay his mortgage and the bank took his house away. Now I'm trying to buy it from the bank. It's hard to work with the bank, they are slow and sometimes they won't sell it and you don't know why. Grace and Dazzlyn will be super disappointed if we can't buy it.

This means I'm a central valley guy now. I never thought I would settle down in one place, but I guess it's time. I have a good job, and it's comfortable in Bako. I hope that wanderlust doesn't kick up again though!

On another topic, I got accepted to present a paper at the National American Conference on Irish Studies in New Orleans in March. I still can't believe it. The conference looks like a big deal, with lots of famous thinkers in the field, so I still feel like it must be a mistake that they let me in! I have to get working on my research again to come up with a big idea. My working title: "The New Island: How W.B. Yeats Invented Cyber-Space."
Peace