Fast.

So some time mid-December I finally had a break at work and got to go home for the holidays. Greg actually came with me, which was fun. We spent Christmas at my brother’s new house, which was actually really fun. He just bought a really old house that used to be a boarding school in the 1800s/early 1900s. It was a beautiful house, and he has a decent amount of land with it, so he’s excited. Seems like a whole lot of work though. I can’t imagine the upkeep.

I’ve been back at work for a couple weeks — pretty slow. I’ve been writing my face off and trying to prep my dissertation "proposal" for some time this month. I say "proposal" because 70% of the work I finished — it’s what kept me chained to this building for 7 months straight (no weekends, no holidays. Really, any time someone complained about working x amount of days in a row because they work retail and blah blah… I wanted to murder them through facebook). But, yay! It looks like it all might be worth it in the end. My next set of subjects are here and more are coming. I just need to finish writing the proposal for that part of the study. My boss gauranteed that I would be a PhD by the end of the year. Wooo.

I had a phone interview with someone at Johns Hopkins on Monday. He wants to fly me up for an in person interview. So that’s ridiculously exciting. He’s in a much different field than I am, but it’s more translational than what I’m currently doing. I think I’d be happier doing something more translational — more opportunity to see my research actually benefiting people. Or at least that’s kind of how he made it sound. My boss told me not to commit until after we go to the meeting in Puerto Rico in the spring, as there should be a lot of opportunities there. I’m completely stunned that this guy contacted me (literally, 12 hours after fixing some mistakes on my job profile that would’ve made me unfind-able previously) and how quickly everything is moving.