Saturday, July 5, 2008

All this blogging activity from my friends has motivated me

So I guess the reason I stopped writing two times ago now was because I couldn't be honest and put on here what I wanted to say. I couldn't put it on here because...someone might read it. Thats really the reason every time I stop blogging I guess. But low and behold, I move past whatever it is and I start it up again when I'm bored.

Since May 9th...yeah...a lot has happened. I guess the short of it being, I'm living in Erie this summer. I have a job at the ERIE office as a researcher. I have a grant to further my own research on a topic of my choosing (Leading Business Cycle Metropolitan Statistical Areas). I got a job with UPS as a box handler but decided that the commute along with taxes was not gonna make the job worth it so I quit before I even started the job. I felt bad about wasting their time but they were not going to give me enough hours a day to make the job worth it.

Oh, in now 14 days I leave for England for a month. Yeah. Thats pretty big. I'm really really excited. I saw some pictures of the campus and it looks beautiful! There are initial plans in the works for Paris, Rome, Dublin, Stonehenge, London of course, and Scotland. I'm going to come back so broke!

I've been spending a lot of time with friends doing a lot of fun things. Erie is a great town to be in in the summer. There are concerts, block parties, festivals, etc. If I really wanted to go out every night to something I could most likely find something. Not to forget just State Street in general. I haven't spent a whole lot of time bar hopping because I'm trying to save money for the trip, but I've had a few great nights there.

In general my work and research is going well. I built an MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) database that tracks the changes from 1950 through 1999 (2003+ forthcoming). I was very proud of that because it was a lot of data gathering and formatting but also because it involved a bit of coding. I don't really know how to computer program but I had a little bit of it in high school so I just started playing with it and got it to do what I needed it to do. I wont really waste my time or yours explaining it b/c I know no one likes to read/talk economics outside of economics majors and I don't think any of them are reading this.

Back to the 'burgh on the 11th for Dentist, Em's 21rst birthday!, Science Center Lunch!!, and meeting with a long lost friend for a bit before back up the highway. I'll be back in Pittsburgh on Wednesday to pack and get ready for my trip.


For the most part you can leave it at I'm generally happy and healthy. Are there things I wish were different, sure. But its nothing too serious I suppose. I am excited for London but I'm also excited to start the next semester...senior year...its a big one.

No comments: