This is what happens when your dreams start to come true!
First of all - my little man is doing well. In fact, here he is enjoying a pile of yarn in my house!
The boyfriend is also amazing, although he is younger-cousin sitting this week, so I haven't seen to much of him.
On to the good news:
I'd been wanting to move to the South side of my town- it's where I grew up, it's where the yarn shop is that I work at, it's where my new school is, it's where the Boyfriend lives and works... you get the idea. When I moved back home, I moved to the North end of town because it was cheaper and I needed a place fast.
Last week I realized that, with school starting in the fall, it didn't make much sense at all for me to continue my full-time position with the construction company in the next county over. Too much time commuting, too many work hours and too much stress. Plus, the shop owners were willing to give me a raise, increase my hours (from 5 per week- not difficult!), and contribute to a health insurance program. Sweet deal, right? So I started looking for a new apartment and began to dread telling my current bosses that I was leaving.
So I started combing Craigslist, and on Monday I went to look at The.Perfect.Apartment. Its on the south end of town, right across the street from one of my favorite parks. It's got a view of the ocean, a cute walkway and it's an adorably charming old building with tilty floors. It's perfect.
I get the keys tomorrow.
Also on monday, one of my favorite authors (academically) was in town giving a book talk. And I heard from one of my old students from Georgia- which nearly made me cry.
So- this all happened on Monday, and that would have been plenty of wonderful things for one week. I was getting so excited about moving, preparing to start school again and beginning a new stage in my life.
Then, I got an email from my school. They're offering me a full graduate assistantship.
What does that mean? It means that they're going to pay all but 10% of my tuition. It means that they're going to give me a stipend. It means that I will have health care... all in exchange for teaching, grading and/or researching. Completely amazing. This is what I want- I want to work in higher ed, I want to teach... this is step number one. My life- the things that I want for my life- are all coming true.
I'm still kind of in shock. It's completely unexpected as a first year student at this school- which is like all schools experiencing severe budget cuts. Now- I get to go to school, get paid for it, and play with yarn for fun... My life is about to be completely awesome.
