My New Life (Crossposted with WP)
I have now lived in New Orleans for almost a year and an half. In the past year, I have gone from living in a constant state of unemployed terror to someone who has a number of possibilities in front of her.
Some of you already know from Twitter, but I have been offered a graduate assistantship at UNO. In the fall, I will either be working in the writing center or helping a professor with research. This will provide me with a stipend and free tuition, so I will no longer have to worry about maxing out my loans every semester.
The money from the assistantship will also allow me to travel in the summer of 2012. Right now, I’m thinking a trip to the UK is in order.
For the first time, I’m also looking into PhD programs. I’m hoping I’ll be working towards a PhD and enjoying a stipend and health benefits by 2013.
I’ve also been a bit surprised the past month, because I somehow managed to snag myself a boyfriend. This is surprising because I’ve been actively seeking a girlfriend since before I moved here and have been trolling (as much as it’s possible for me to troll) the Jewish queer events in New Orleans. The bf managed to go with the flow enough to skirt all of my objections, and it’s been interesting, to say the least.
Yesterday was my 29th birthday, so my mother has been in town for the past few days. She went home this morning and left behind two or more weeks worth of food and a kitchen full of dirty dishes. Included was about three pounds of liver pate. A few months ago, Doc Brite wrote about a Chinese market across the river that sells Banh mi. I’ve never tried it before, but I’ve decided to give it ago because of all of my pate. Bf is going to take me to the market over the weekend, and I’m going to buy the fixings to make homemade ramen and compare my banh mi with the market’s deli. I’m hoping I’ll have just enough to also buy some lotus buns.
That’s been my life in the past month. I’ve been getting things done. I haven’t been writing enough, but I’ve managed to finish a few books, finish up the semester as a professor and graduate student, and enjoy life more than I have in years.