I'm back!

Hi all! Sorry for the long absence. It's been a crazy few weeks, but life is settling down again and I'm back to blogging. I'll give you the rundown of what's been up:

1) Finished thesis. Am still waiting on a third reader (all English profs at Dal seem to be on vacation right now, so I'm still hanging in there) but once he/she gets through with it, it's off to the binders and I'll receive my copy in the mail in September.

2) Moved out of Christy's and back to the apartment. She and Keith got back from Toronto on the 25th, and they drove me over to the apartment that night. It was sad to leave Sam and the house, but I knew that I was leaving for Toronto myself in a couple of days, so that made things easier.

3) I spent two and a half days going crazy getting ready to move. I packed seven boxes and dropped them off at the depot to be shipped back home, cleaned the apartment top to bottom in 35 degree heat, returned all of my library books (thesis related and otherwise) to two different libraries, dropped three giant bags of clothes &c. at the Goodwill bin, and watched as three crazy kids spent an hour disassembling my futon so that they could get it out the door. Good times!

4) Flew home.

I got home on the 27th, and I've been settling in ever since. I spent a good three days cleaning out my room and unpacking, and it looks pretty fantastic now. I have an uber organized closet, which is fun, and lots of new clothes courtesy of my shopaholic aunt Colleen and her own closet clean-out. Hence the reason that I've spent most of the afternoon letting down pants (we're the same size, but my legs are a couple of inches longer.) Yea for free clothes!

I'm also currently looking for a job that does not involve teaching--I've decided that it's just not for me this year. The first year of teaching is always awful (I've heard so many teachers recommend that you never get married before your first year, because you will drive your spouse insane), and why go through that when I'm only going to be doing it for a year? If it was a long term career, fine, but I'd rather get a job that is less stressful and potentially pays more, so I'm on the hunt. Let me know if you've got any good ideas. That's taking up lots of time too.

I'm also enjoying the fact that Mom & Dad live next to some great walking trails by the Credit River. I got into the habit of walking a lot with Sam, and I'm trying to keep it up. We've been having gorgeous weather, which I'm very much enjoying.

My other major project is researching for my SSHRC proposals and a book that I might be editing for a series that Dean does for a university press. I also need to work up the third chapter of my thesis into an article and send it off to get published, because that will seriously help in potentially getting government grants. I've also found out that the University of Toronto gives out a Northrop Frye Fellowship grant for academics who are working on Frye, which I certainly will be, so hopefully the combination of getting that and a SSHRC will make me a candidate that UofT can't resist. I'll be happy going to Mac or York if that doesn't work out, but I'm hopeful anyway.

I remember my friend Elise at Queen's last year telling us how she took a year off of school & work to be a stay at home girlfriend. I thought she was crazy, but right now, it's sounding pretty good to me! I can see how you could fill your days pretty easily. I know that I'll start working sooner than later, but I'm enjoying having some serious time off for the first time in my life, and I'm going to appreciate every minute of it. And hopefully now that I've got more time on my hands, I'll stop being a bad blogger!