Completing another revolution around our star, I find myself a year older, a year wiser, and a year more focused on what I need and want to do. Throughout this year, I know that I have spent a great deal of it burned out from what had come before. Challenges at work, moving myself into the final phase of my formal education, and trying to have some semblance of a life have definitely taken a toll on me. New challenges, new opportunities, and new stars above to guide me. And yet overall I feel as if I have been stuck in neutral for most of the year, feeling burned out. I haven't made as much progress on my dissertation in the last year as I had wanted, given the family health situations and the challenge of rebuilding my department. So with this I choose to make a decision to shift out of neutral in the next year. Finish the dissertation and move on with life. And that will happen.

For now though, it's birthday time! And as Katy Perry sings, "it's time to bring out the big balloons"... any volunteers?