back in action - where i attempt to convey what's happening

it's pretty ironic that the last post from over a year ago involved me apologizing to my future engineer husband/boyfriend for dating that starving artist/poet. he may not be named Dan, but he's an engineer indeed and it turns out i did return his texts, he had no DVDs for me to steal, and he's smarter than me. all good things. oh, and he's from northern ireland and currently lives in scotland.

so there's that.

updates for the two people that read this: my contract with my current job ends at the end of this fiscal year so i'm thinking of heading to glasgow to live for a few months on a visitor's visa. ideally i'd like to get a job while i'm there and then get signed on with a work visa, but we'll see. i'm currently pinching pennies and saving so that i can do this little adventure without going bankrupt.

the great news is i'm also planning to apply to the University of Glasgow's PhD programme in Urban Studies to start September 2013. a long way off, i know, but i'm meeting with some professors when i go over for a conference in july (another story altogether) to figure out if my research interests align with what they're doing and then logistics. my professors at GW like to say that when a professor is trying to decide on a PhD candidate they just need to be able to say, "would i like to have lunch with this person?" except that lunch lasts 4 years. i'm hoping i'm smart enough and i end up writing a great proposal. i also hope that i don't have to take the GREs again. ick.

being a professor would be fantastic. i get to write articles (maybe a book), would get to talk in front of people for hours at a time and get paid for it, and everyone would HAVE to read my book/article. i can't think of a downside.

i'm headed to the UK from july 1-12 to see the boy, we're headed to n. ireland to visit his family (hopefully the weakley charm will work wonders) and then i'm headed to the Welfare to Work UK Conference in Birmingham, England through InclusionUS (a research and consulting firm i'm writing some stuff for). i'm excited to do some networking, present/circulate a policy paper i'm writing, and hanging out with some smart people. maybe i'll charm some folks into giving me a job or at least something to do while i'm in the UK for 3-6 months.

that's all for now, i promise to start writing more again. funny stories, too, and perhaps even a photo. here's one of the boy and i when i went to visit in march. this was in this national reserve in central england called milldale. not too shabby, i suppose.