I'm Going to College! (again)

So I opened up my email yesterday and was pleasantly surprised to see that I received a message from the University of Georgia's school of social work. They wrote me saying that I was officially accepted to their PhD program to start in August of '09.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I just need to figure out what I'm doing until then...

The Past Month or So...

So I've been doing a lot of traveling since I moved away from Texas. I definitely have the time to do it so I figure, why not? I also got paid two different times from the state of Texas well after I quit my job so I had some money. One paycheck was for my final travel reimbursement and the other was for all the overtime I worked (for some reason they make you accumulate it and only pay you when you either quit or reach 250+ hours). Here is a quick synopsis of my travels:

I spent Halloween up in Tallahassee with my boys...we dressed up two different nights (it's my favorite holiday). I then went up to Athens, GA to see Gabe and Shirin plus one. After that it was a quick night at Mamaw's and then right back to Tallahassee for another party (I can't stay away from that place). The week after that I rested in Lakeland with Mom and Dad and even got to see my nephew (Cruz) play some college b-ball. When I recuperated I flew out to Texas to see some friends I forgot to say goodbye too and then kept flying until I reached San Francisco where my childhood friend Doug lives and goes to school. I had a good time in Cali and then it was time to fly back to Florida and rest some more at my parent's house. Then it was back, once again, to Tallahassee where someone was having a birthday party (i HAD to go). I only stayed a couple days because it was then time for Thanksgiving and I wanted to show up to Uncle Sam's a little early to hang out with everyone there. After all my family showed up and we did the usual marathon session of games and food I went back to Lakeland and eventually made my way to Orlando. In O-town I hung out with Pogo where we went out to some bars and even met up with some old friends we met on a cruise we took last Spring Break (yeah, I still go on Spring Break).

...and that pretty much brings you up to speed. Pictures will follow as soon as I'm done with my travels.

Back in FL

I'm sitting here in Tallahassee, FL on this fine Sunday afternoon. I got here on Thursday night after a long, rain-filled, 15 hour drive from Austin. I'm hanging out here with my friends from school for a bit and then it's off to Lakeland to see mom and dad. See ya soon guys!

Changes

It's official. Texas will no longer be my home after this week. I have finally had my fill of Tex-Mex and humongous beers out here in the Lone Star State. After I quit my job and started really thinking about what's best for me, I realized that a big change was in order (one even bigger than quitting my job, that is).

What's next for Brendan? Who knows? I actually applied for grad school to go back and get my PhD so hopefully that will come through. I wouldn't start school until Fall of '09 though, so I have some time to sit on things. Maybe I'll travel a bit, maybe get a job. Maybe I can quickly get on a reality t.v. show and become famous. We'll see..

p.s. if you want to visit Austin you better come in the next few days

Looking for Work!

Well, it's been a while since I blogged and the past month has been pretty big in the change department. I worked my last day at Child Protective Services yesterday and right now I am figuring out what my next move is. I gave my notice at the beginning of September so I've known for a little while now that I had to start looking for jobs but I still don't know where it'll be. I've already interviewed for a couple of jobs within the state department but I may just call it quits in Texas altogether and move. Who knows what the future holds?

Next Blog Post: Possibly written in a different state.

I've been a little out of commission lately. This is because I got two of my wisdom teeth out last week. The picture to the right shows a little bit of swelling on the right side of it. It hurt.

I did not go with the conventional dentist-oral surgeon route, however. No, I instead took part in a study for post-op pain at this mad scientist lab in Austin. All I had to do was go through a screening process and stay overnight on the day of the surgery...and they paid me $400!

Yep, I'm officially a lab rat but all in all it wasn't so bad. It did suck because I definitely received the placebo drug after surgery and I had to wait about an hour and a half before I got the "rescue medication" pain-killers. Oh well, it taught me a little about my pain threshold I guess.

da Baby!

Here is a picture of my new Nephew. I'm sure everyone who reads this blog has seen plenty of pictures of babies lately, but I like this one. Morgan does look a little scared of me but I think it's because someone was talking about my Kickboxing skills.

Moving on Up (to the East side)

Well, it's August 1st and I officially have to say goodbye to my apartment and say hello to a new house. I will be living slightly southeast from where I used to live with the addition of three other dudes. One of these dudes I know from work. The other two are random guys from my friend's church. I met them both last month, though, and I think we'll all get along pretty well.

I'm kind of excited to move in to my new place because I've been living alone for so long now. Even though I loooooove being able to do whatever the hell I want to in the comfort of my own apartment, I think I'm going to like the things that come with this new house (cable, cheaper rent, and friends who like to watch the UFC).

Even though I don't have an extra bedroom anymore, everyone is still invited to come stay with me!

For All You Cynics

I'm just writing this post so I can quiet all those people making silly comments on my May entry. Here is an update and a picture for you:

I'm still working.

I'm going to apply to schools sometime soon for a PhD in Social Work. I wouldn't start until Fall of '09 though...

I am moving into a different house this week so I will finally have internet at home again. Maybe this will help the blog.

...and the picture:

This is David, Me, and our friend Shaw at some bar in Orlando.

There ya go.

What's Happening?

Well, aside from me becoming an Uncle again this past weekend (which I'm sure Shirin will blog about so I won't talk about Lil' Cyrus just yet) I haven't had much happen in the last month or so.

I did go to Orlando to see all my boys from FL and we had a pretty good time going out and lounging by the pool.

I've been going out here in Austin a good amount so I'm pretty much an expert on how to blow $100 in a few hours at a bar now. Ha.

I got back from San Angelo, TX a while back helping out with the FLDS removal business and I'd really like to talk about that but the Department of Family and Protective Services give us strict instructions to NOT BLOG about stuff like that. Oh well...

I also recently got done with two video projects that I was working on for a month or so. One was just a fun video with footage from my cruise and sock puppet reenactments (it's done kind of "George"-style and is probably only funny to the people who went on the cruise). The other video, however, was one for my old job at the gym on FSU campus. My old boss paid me about $150 to edit together a bunch of footage they had from a big workout contest they did this spring. I'm trying to compete with Gabe's video project efforts in order to one day be able to under-cut him on every offer he receives (ya gotta love sibling rivalry).

Other than that, I've just been trying to relax a bit here in the great state of Texas. I think I'm going tubing down a river next week and maybe renting a movie or two. Adios...