What is going on

I feel redundant in starting another blog with an 'I am still alive' but, I think I owe you all that. As best I can understand it I had malaria and was sure that it was not licked however, my blood analysis today showed no critters though my lymphocyte count was quite high. So my body is fighting something, my guess is I picked up some opportunistic flu-type virus. Good news is that I took a nap after work today which was great. I feel pretty good!

Work has been very kind this week. Moses has been taking care of IAVI like a champ in my stead. There are those people in an organization that you cannot afford to lose and he is most definitely one of them. Kahler has also picked things up and run with them, there are many things yet to be finalized before we are all set for the audit. Today I walked in the lab and Moses was standing on a chair dusting the top shelf that must be ten feet off the ground. I feel pretty good.

Heard that my bro and sis got a sweet new roof! I can't wait to see it. The countdown has started in my mind and though I haven't moved past the gre and audit it is just that I have a mental escape from over-whelmed shut down taking over now. I was telling Heather the other day that it is just the simple things like green grass the absence of trash every where that get me excited about seeing that Texas paradise again. I feel pretty good.

Things are going together quite well with doctoral applications and I am very hopeful. There is no way around these applications taking a great deal of time that I have yet found. Other then recycling things like Statement of Purpose and Research Interest. That 'Research Interest Statement' has been a bit tricky for me. I received an email from a dear mentor Dr. Chuck Huber at SRPH (a brilliant statistician) that made external all the things that I have been feeling about this research thing. Uncle Bill (keenest, most hungry intellect I have ever known) told me the same thing early on. It is difficult to use a hook that you are not passionate about to get on in a program. On the other hand, I am going to leave room for a passion to develop. I think that there is enough room to scoot around a bit and tailor the dissertation to something that I can be enthusiastic about. I feel pretty good.

That is all I have for now, I hope that you all are at least pretty good as well. I will see you soon!

Story Time:
My memory today was riding to the immigration office... again, with Mr. Theo. He didn't mention marrying a Zambian this time. I think he is done chasing that after I told him last time that I am not really on the market. He dropped me off and I walked into this house of confusion and disorganization with hopes of procuring an important official document... what was I thinking? I sat in a chair across from the place where the contact I was told to see should be seated. No worries, what else is there to do, right? I can wait this thing out. About fifteen to twenty minutes later the officer saunters up and begins on paperwork pretending that I do not exist. I have learned to fight fire with fire and pretended to be nodding off. Worked like a dang charm. She asked how she could help me and I told her what I needed, she, of course, acted put out and sent a runner to fetch the document. I resumed my annoyed and drowsy demeanor and waited for the result of the search. It came back with nothing. I believe that the lady then realized that I was the guy who's employment permit they had just flat out lost. She was a bit more cordial and I had a little leverage. She tried to say that there were pending requirements. I asked her with an amount of impatience why I, as the owner, was not notified of these documents? She had no answer and requested that I bring another photocopy of my passport. She did not go so far as to apologize but, I sensed some serious embarrassment and hope that this net submission will be expedited with a speed not yet seen in Zambia. Ok so the latter is just wishful thinking. We will see, my temporary permit stands valid until Dec. 15th when I leave. I am not worried at all. I mean if I can't get back into country that is not my problem, oh dang, ZEHRP figure it out I will be in Texas doing pretty good.