Count down: 3 months, 1 week

I started back to school this week and am already counting down the days until I'm officially done -- more out of anxiety. Today's job market report didn't help.

Still no word on the part-time gig, but I'm told I should hear today. I applied in July and was told I would know about 3 weeks ago. and at this point I really could go either way. If I get it, it will be great experience, but if not that will give me more time to focus on landing the big grown up job. So the full-time job search has begun in earnest. I applied for two positions with a consulting firm this week. Wasn't thinking I would go that route, but the travel is minimal and the projects look very interesting.

And despite the ridiculously high unemployment rates reported today, I think there is some good job mojo in the universe. Congrats to all those I know that have landed new gigs in the last month. I sent you lots of positive vibes to the job universe so you could land those sweet gigs and now it's your turn to do the same. Or at least review my resume and cover letters -- thanks Mom and Meg ;)

So about school. I'm taking a great class on media and politics by a Washington Post columnist which should be very entertaining given the presidential elections and my love for the media. And I have a short 7 week class on management within governments. So far, pretty easy. The data for the thesis is in the mail from the govt of India, so it's a go. It was quite a pain to get, but after a call to the Minister of Stats, all was good. His assistants told him someone from Washington, DC was calling so I suspect he thought it was someone important based on the scramble you could hear going on. Much to his disappointment it was just a sweet little grad student...He seemed a bit annoyed, but he got it taken care of after hanging up on me. Thanks Mr. Minister :) I'll send you a copy of my research with your holiday card.

And I've been a little less stir crazy this week because of all the visitors I've had. I joked that I was running a youth hostel. The door is always open, so please come visit. But I do have to go get some work done now. The first big deadline for the thesis is fast approaching.