It is amazing how swiftly time flies. When Jean and I got married 25 years ago, her father–who was 67 at the time–warned us that the next 50 years would fly by so fast our heads would spin. We laughed, but now I turn around and notice that half that time has indeed vanished without our realizing it. And doesn’t it seem like just yesterday that everybody was celebrating the start of the new millennium, which was 5 years ago already? Scary.

I have enjoyed my Christmas vacation immensely, especially the activities: celebrating both Christmas and New Year, socializing with friends and family, setting my own work schedule, reading two books, editing an issue of Visions of Paradise. At times like this it is easy to forget about school and envy friends such as Tom Halliwell and Alan Gilbert who retired early and are now free to follow their muses fulltime. Fortunately, I did some online chatting this week with Aishwarya, Rabbit, Lauren, and Kevin, and exchanged email with Manal, all of which reminded me of the joys of spending time with my students, so returning to school tomorrow morning–and awaking at the obscene hour of 5:45am!!!–should not be so traumatic. If only my workload was not so intense this year, I would be much happier...