Speaking in generalities...

...I'm kind of tired of my job already, four months into it. The people are great - I couldn't ask for nicer bosses and co-workers (mostly) and the workload is beyond manageable. But, it's not my career. It is, however, a great place to pay off debt and tuck money away for rainier days.

So, I'm starting to look ahead, a little. We went hiking on Mt. Tam with our friend, Sarah, who just finished up her master's degree this spring. She's flirting with the idea of pursuing her PhD, which automatically got my own wheels spinning. I have to admit, I'm in the perfect position to start down that path (and a long, slow path it will be). This job demands little of me, so I have energy and time leftover to study; it's also a college campus - a damn fine one - with limitless resources available to me. For example, if I run short on references, I can take a class here for free. I've even gone so far as to lay out a plan in my head. There are the GRE's: both the regular ones (my last set of score expired this year, I think) and the subject test in Literature (which means priming myself on Western Literature, as a whole). And I'll need to polish up a paper to submit. Gleaming, it must gleam and blind oncoming traffic.

And then there's the whole where to apply thing. I'm picky about where I'll live - red states, land-locked states, southern states... all out of the question. And I plan to study Modern American Lit, so studying abroad is downright silly.

Decisions, decisions. So, I'm facing a lot of work (the test prep alone is quite daunting), but I'm in the perfect position to be doing so - I have the time and the funding (two things that are not easily happened upon simultaneously). To truly feel comfortable embarking on the application process, I'll want to bone up on my critical theory, reconnect with British Literature and then practice taking that dastardly general exam (algebra, ahoy).

I think I need a nap.