From 8.4 Million to 50,000

I know, I know - I promised a couple more blog posts on here long ago, but they didn't happen. Today is actually one of the first days that I have looked at this blog in about six months, and I was surprised to see that I still have viewers! It could be that it's just one awesome fan who faithfully checks this blog a few times every week to see if there's anything new (not likely, but I would love you) or people are stumbling on it quite by accident.

I think to myself, do they wonder where I am now? The vague answer (that ties in with my title) is that I have gone from a city with a population of 8.4 million to one of 50,000. Also, I should mention that I got these numbers from googling "population of NYC" and then "population of Logan" (the 8.4 million was rounding down, and the 50,000 was rounding up, just fyi). Yes, in about six months I've gone from NYC to the little-known city called Logan in northern Utah. But don't worry (I'm sure some of you do - wondering how in the world I can leave such a grand city and come to a small one), my life is still awesome.

To give the brief rundown of my life choices in the past six months, I moved from NYC back to my hometown of Boise, Idaho - perhaps one of my favorite cities in the world. While there, I had to decide on some sort of direction to go in, having already decided that living in NYC and trying to get into editing/agenting/literary stuff was not quite what I wanted. I had an idea about a grad school program at Utah State University. I visited the school and applied. Now, I'm a bonafide graduate student in (drum roll please) Folklore!

Oh yes, folklore is an academic field, and it rocks. I just completed a folklore fieldwork class (my first grad school class ever!) and the evidence is over at https://voicesfieldschool.wordpress.com/ and http://exhibits.usu.edu/exhibits/show/karenrefugees if any of you are interested. We interviewed refugees in the Cache Valley in order to document and share their incredible stories - and yes, that is a part of folklore.

Due to the program, I'll be in Logan for at least two years, and I'm excited for it. The location is gorgeous, and there are tons of outdoor activities to do. Also, I hear they have some excellent opera. I have a new blog called Hungry Little Hobbit You can see what life is like on the other side of the country. Also, it's on wordpress, so the layout got a facelift.

So long!