I’ve been quiet for a while. School has been consuming half of my soul, living in Waltham gnawing at the other half, thus contributing to the overall lack of time and motivation to bring about this long-drawn silence of late. However, despite the absence of regular posts, site meter reads show that there are still people periodically visiting this site. Thank you. Really. So for the sake of saving what’s left of my readership, as well as providing some kind of update on what’s happening in my domain (no, I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth yet), here’s a brief overview on my overall well-being in general, and my current state in particular, in case you happen to care.

School-wise - school’s fine. Really. No more and no less, that is. I’m not particularly loving it, not quite loathing it entirely (with the exception of one particular class). I am still the disgruntled student that I was at the beginning of the semester, as my past posts will attest to, but for the sake of not repeating myself, I will spare you from the long list of frustrations and apprehensions, and will simply say that, yeah, it’s bearable, it’s going to be over in May and that I will make it through with what dignity and pride I still have left. Grade-wise, on the other hand, I’m kicking ass – turns out I can write pretty good papers, although I’ve never looked at grades as means of measuring progress or accomplishments. Onwards…

Career-wise – it looks like I have taken a completely radical turn as to what I want to do after I graduate. So I’m slowly restructuring – that is, coming to a realization that neither field work, nor micro-finance is what I would like to do with myself at this point. I am more and more drawn to research and policy analysis, and am considering the possibility of getting a PhD in some still intangible future, in some still undefined field. For now, the future, still as vague and uncertain as it can be, concerns me a bit. And yet, I do seem to be confident enough to know that really, I will be fine, no matter what happens or what I happen to chose.

Location-wise –After having lived in the South, it’s a little difficult to get used to New England. Blame the weather. Blame the closed, shielded, unfriendly waspiness. I do find it hard to see myself living here either now, or any point of my life. Despite the historic and cultural magnificence of Boston itself and quaint and artsy cuteness of the nearby small towns, I still can’t quite get it, it still won’t grown on me. Waltham, on the other hand, having neither the quaintness nor the cuteness of nearby towns, has little to nothing to grown on anyway. It depresses the hell out of me. Speak about development – the town needs some serious “lifestyle” development – being the bland dump that it is. Onwards, before I get myself in trouble here…

Fun-wise – my social life leaves much room for improvements. There are days when all I seem to want is to be left alone to read articles and edit papers, or lay on the couch watching CSI re-runs. There are also days when I catch myself feeling nostalgic at the idea of being able to walk into a neighborhood bar, to hang out with local drunks and catch up on gossip… This is when I know how much I miss Yerevan and a certain drunk in particular, which in its turn makes me realize how much time has passed since then, and how much I’ve changed and mellowed in the last couple of years…

Richmond-wise – my frequent trips to Richmond are my saving grace, before I go completely nuts in Smalltown America. I have sublet the cutest room in a cutest row house in the Museum District for winter break. Within walking distance to Carytown and the museums on Boulevard, this is the closest I have lived to the Fan (the area may even be considered the Fan). Needless to say – I’m excited. And would like to extend an open invitations to those who might be interested in coming up for a visit. There. Any volunteers?

Relationship-wise –slowly, very slowly, one baby step at a time I have been recovering all the faith that I lost about relationships in general, and myself in a relationship in particular. My less than stellar track record in this particular area had left me with a reservation that there might be something innately wrong about me and commitments, and everything else that goes into making a functioning relationship. I am slowly coming to realize that after all my fears, mistakes, reservations and plain stubbornness, I am in the middle of a very happy relationship and that is one way of knowing that I finally reconciled all my past conflicts and got my priorities straight. Good to know – turns out it was not all completely hopeless…

Other-wise – to list a few random irrelevances observed as of late - an overall increase in TV watching (particularly CSI – only as little as three months ago I watched almost no TV), drastic decrease in caffeine and nicotine consumption (contrary to what you might think grad school does to you); diet consisting of peanut butter sandwiches, greasy free pizza that they give out at school (Heller school indeed tries to alleviate hunger one student at a time), cafeteria wraps and ravioli - my eating habits are not particularly exciting or exemplary. Yet, it does not bother me at all. Not now. Not at this point. Which I am taking as a good sign. I feel the same way about dropping a course so that the quality of my sleep does not suffer. A big leap forward, I’d say.

So that’s that - my life in a nutshell, kids. Not very exciting, but livable, I’d say. Better, much better than lives of those who do not have what today I am lucky to have and perhaps do not appreciate to the extent that I should. However, despite everything that annoys and frustrates me from one day to another, I do know that I am, still, happy as I’ve never been and forever grateful for everything that I have, - today, tomorrow and for many days to come.