Happy New Year to all, and I hope that you survived the holiday break with no major upsets. Here in Ontario we lived through an intense ice storm that left hundreds of thousands without power in and around Christmas Day. City crews, hydro workers, and other hard-working citizens have been labouring around the clock to clean up after the storm and deal with ongoing snowstorms across the province.

I’m currently stranded in Ethel, Ontario, where I’m dog and house sitting for my uncle. The snow banks outside are unreal and I’m taking a quick coffee break between shoveling out a portion of the driveway. Despite the wild weather, it has been good to get away, be reflective, and enjoy a complete change of scene.

I like to think of this 2-week time away from my blog as a period of decompression and enjoyment of the hermit lifestyle. My days have been spent hiking in the woods and along blustery country roads, followed by long evenings sipping wine. Prior to moving out to Ethel (which occurred on Boxing Day) I briefly worked at the LCBO during their busy Christmas season. The contrast between working retail at a busy liquor store could not be more contrasted with the utter quiet and lack of human presence that I’ve experienced during this brief foray in country living.

With my pending return to civilized society, I know that I have to shake off the leisurely lifestyle and get back to work applying to jobs. Despite the list of academic-related tasks that I currently have on my to-do list, including: writing a journal article based on my thesis research, preparing a lecture for my adviser’s recreation-oriented university class, and working on a conference presentation for April 2014, I still don’t have long-term plans to return to academia. Reading the blogs by Professor Never and Dr. Waitress over the break only deepened my commitment to seek out new directions for my life and career.

I hope that you’ll continue to follow along with my career journey – there is still much to be explored!