So 2010 is drawing to a close.  As I write this, my colleagues in India are about 90 minutes from 2011.

So what has this year brought?

In January, I started a contract job for a well-known company here in the Midwest.  I moved to the Des Moines, IA metro area.  I lived and worked there for 8 months before being lured back to the Cities to a job I thought I'd like.  It was for more pay, but that didn't offset that it was one of the jobs that I hated.  A month later I was back contracting at my old job in Des Moines, and two months after that, I became a direct employee.

I have spent the year maintaining two residences.  Until November, I was receiving a per diem that helped offset the cost of paying both rent and mortgage.  At one point, I couldn't wait to move back to Minnesota.  Now I can't wait to sell the house and cut one of the last remaining connections I have to the Twin Cities.

What connections are left in Minnesota?  The rabbit volunteers, Tawny, and the house.  That's it.

I'm going to sell the house.  Or rent it if I stand to lose my shirt.

Tawny?  Who am I kidding?  It's over.  Eight years.  In some respects, it feels like they were wasted.  In other ways, I know they weren't.  But the distance did not make the heart grow fonder.  A couple of times that I made the 4-hour journey to the Cities from Des Moines, Tawny's schedule was too busy for her to come see me.  When I returned to the Cities for a month to work the much-hated contract job, I realized distance wasn't the only thing keeping us apart.  Now I refer to her in conversations as the ex-girlfriend, though we haven't officially had that talk yet.  But I sense the infrequent contact is a clear sign that she feels much the same way.  The irony is I was drawn to her because of her independence.  So in hindsight, I shouldn't be surprised that she would want to assert that independence:  She moved out in November '09 because she felt depending on me was making her too complacent in her job search.  She hasn't found the good, well-paying job in her field, and more and more people enter that job market every six months, compounding the problem.  She recently intimated that she was looking to search job markets in Minnesota's neighboring states, including Iowa.

Not sure if I find that appealing.

The rabbit volunteers?  They've managed just fine without me.  Once I sell my house, it's doubtful I'll see them even occasionally.  I'm anxious to get a rabbit agility program started in Iowa, and that plus a Hoppy Hour might lead to bridging the two programs.