Down to The Wire

Tomorrow I leave for Baltimore. This is it. If things go well, then by this time next year I will be far from Indiana. If things don't go well, then hopefully I will still be far from Indiana. We'll see. Mostly I am just sad that tomorrow morning will mark the beginning of 4-5 months without Sebastian. It is killing me; it is probably thrilling him. I wish he had been a bastard during all this shuffling around from place to place, but he's been so well-behaved, and especially mindful and tender. He's just doing it to torture me, I'm sure. I shouldn't have taken the spots in Tilburg and Amsterdam. I'm leaving too much behind. But on the other hand, it is unlikely that I'd finish the dissertation in a timely manner if I were stuck in Bloomington.

Christmas produced a bountiful haul of DVDs, books, cds, dolla' bills, and a handheld gps system to keep me from getting lost in europe.

I still don't have housing arrangements in Baltimore. The person with whom I was supposed to stay backed out at the last moment, leaving me up the creek. I really do not want to have to fork out 120 a night to stay in the hotel reserved by the APA. I would not have gone a day early had I known that the prior arrangement would be revoked. I think I might try to camp out in the airport to save some cash.

NB: If you promise to host someone 4 months in advance, and something happens (even something terrible, as the case may be), and you give only a week's notice to the person, you have, it seems to me, an obligation to help the person find other arrangements. It is just wrong to leave the person high and dry. I say this because I once believed it to be common sense, but apparently my would-be host does not find it so.