Happy Birthday to me!!

Yes, I feel like I have been quite anti-social lately and I feel rather bad about it. It is not that I am trying to ignore anyone either. It's been kind of strange living up here in Massachusetts away from the world I know. I don't know many people here, mostly because I haven't started school and I do not have a job yet. I applied to Borders books and cafe last night; they are actually hiring at the Salomon Pond location.

So, today is in fact my birthday and I am a very old twenty-four. My goodness! No, I'm really not old at all. Tonight, Brian and I are going to a restaurant in Worchester called The Sole Proprietor, it should be very good; The Sole is a seafood place. Brian is at work now; he got a job teaching instrumental music to 5th and 6th graders in Tewksbury, Mass. I am happy for him, and now, I hope to get a job myself! I haven't really been trying though because I didn't know what my school schedule was going to be until yesterday. In exchange for my tuition waiver, I have to work for a teacher for ten hours a week either doing research or being a teaching assistant. I am working with Dr. Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, who specializes in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean history. I will be her research assistant and she said that the hours would be flexible, which is great for me, considering that I have to commute more than an hour to school anyway. I only have to go in two days a week- Monday and Tuesday, which is not bad. We have a graduate school meeting on September 5th at 3:30 and I'm meeting Ilham at 2:30 so that is good.

I've really enjoyed my time here in New England and I've really enjoyed meeting Brian's family. His parents are really nice; it's a little awkward living here, but I believe that we will be in a new place by October 1st, and preferably somewhere closer to the city.

I hope to go camping sometime again sometime this next month. As some of you know, we went to Cape Cod a few weeks ago and we went canoeing up in Maine. And it was so much fun! I really want to go to Vermont or New Hampshire to the mountains. It is really beautiful here.

I still miss Kentucky and my friends (from everywhere) though...