So many of my posts start out with the colour of the sky. That’s when I actually post anything, which seems to be rare nowadays. It’s not really that I’m particularly busy, but rather that I’m in limbo, stuck in a vague no-man’s-land of my life.

However, events have conspired to elicit a brand new post in the blogosphere; events including Brian’s wave through cyberspace and my new job... (drum-roll, please).

Actually, it’s not a job. It’s an internship. But it’s a particularly cool internship, and one that pays, which is more than can be said for most internships.

Come January 23, three days after my graduation ceremony in Exeter, I will be in Birmingham, Alabama, arriving for my first day with Southern Living magazine’s travel department. Southern Living is a major US lifestyle magazine with 15 million subscribers. The magazine’s largest section is devoted to travel, “from Dallas to Delaware.” A team of travel writers contribute 800 articles a year to the magazine, which puts out different issues for each state so as to give a regional feel to their content. And of those 800 articles in the coming year, my name might even appear in a few bylines. (The current intern has apparently contributed over 20 articles, which was apparently a record...)

Okay, so it’s not a high-powered, high-flying, high-playing job, but it’s a start. I’m thinking of it as a chance to get my feet wet in the magazine industry (without moving to New York and eating Ramen noodles every night while sleeping on the floor of a windowless room with ten other struggling, unpaid interns). Plus, the company seems wonderful; they are housed in an incredible building (or series of buildings) in what can only be described as somewhat of a botanical garden in the hills just south of Birmingham.

Now that I have talked it up, it’s time to acknowledge the side of all this that is giving me butterflies. That side involves the fact that, when I arrive in Birmingham on January 22 (to start work the next day), I will be completely jet-lagged, have no home, no car, no bank account, and only one friend in a 200-mile radius.

Oh, and then there’s the visa.

Of course, while worrying about all of this, I have my sights set on next summer and the end of the six-month internship. Yeah... I’m applying to grad school again. I know: what am I thinking? I just... well... I kind of miss it. And getting my grades back from my Master’s was a bit of a thrill. I suppose there’s just something in me that says: “You can do it. You’d love to teach at a university. Just do it!” I don’t know which voice I’m going to listen to; perhaps whether I get in to one of these universities or not will be my sign. I just know I could do it, and if I was doing it I’d love it, so it seems such a waste not to.

So what I am meant to be doing now, instead of blogging, is working on my statement of purpose and writing samples for my applications. At least one thing is certain: if I do a PhD my posts will show up a lot more regularly on here. As soon as I have something to procrastinate from, I get loquacious.

Anyway, it’s going to be stressful Christmas, methinks. And a Christmas without my little brother, who is currently in Phoenix (along with my parents, who are visiting him) doing the practical portion of his commercial pilot training!

But before I start worrying or thinking about any of that, I have far more important and unstressful things to put my mind to. Like Walt Disney and his wonderful World...!

The day after tomorrow Lori and I head down to Orlando for three days of park-hopping Christmas Disney fun! We have tickets to the Christmas party on Monday night (my first time to encounter the fake snow bubbles that get piped over guests’ heads on Main Street). It was, of course, the least we could do to celebrate Walt’s big birthday (and mine, which is coming up on the 20th). And this is the cheapest time of year (and the happiest season of all, let us remember).

So, for now, I can whistle while I work and look forward to the weekend!