B does a PhD

Seriously ... how long has it been now?! I doubt anyone out there reads this anymore, but I think I will have to start this up again. Maybe I can snag hottoddy and C again. It starts with 1 ...

In any event, I totally fell off the face of the earth when I moved back to Texas. For anyone who doesn't know where Texas is, it's in the South Central part of the US abutting fantastic Mexico. I happen to be like 900 miles from the Border, but I like to say I live near anyways. Also, anyone who is reading this and lives abroad, you can always spot a texan because they look comfortable in jeans AND when you ask them where they are from they say Texas, not the US. Dead serious, I got called out on that several times.

After falling in the abyss that is family life here in Texas, I got totally disenchanted with working. Not so much the work part as the finding something I wanted to work at ... or with ... or on ... Ya, lots of choices. I started looking around for other stuff to do, PhD app here, lecturer app there, MBA search. It went on. My MBA search turned up some interesting options and I ended up going to a local university here. They paid me, gave me a nice honor's title, and shoved me into the progam. The whole process took 3 weeks, I think. In any event I finished it in 18 months. There was a lot of busy, but there was a genuine lack of productive.

I really didn't want to get a job in the corporate world. Much to the woe of my program director who expected me to get one of those killer 6 figure jobs when I graduated, I still had my eye on school and, ultimately, teaching. Seriously people, I'm obsessed. I've wanted to be a teacher since I was in HS. Well, not to be outdone by the MBA program, the head of the strategy department sent me a message on Dec 27th, when I had just gotten back from a 7 day all-inclusive in mexico -- I was an easy target I guess. We met Jan 4th and discussed the program. I met all the faculty in one day - 1000 to 1830. By the end of the day the question wasn't, "So, are you interested in applying?" Instead he dropped on me a total surprise, kinda, "So, we've had a student drop out of the program. We only accept three students a year, so there is room for someone to start in the Spring," I paused ... and his response was just, "Right now ... " o.O So, my initial offer was not, "please apply" it was "please decide between the spring and fall ... within 2 days ... "

I obviously took the offer, since I know that their last few placements are at prominent top 20 business schools with salaries well over what I'd expect as a professor. The program covers my tuition and medical, and includes a decent stipend.

SO! I'm hoping to be keeping up a bit more with my blog, maybe revitalize it. Hopefully my audience will grow, I know C is already eagerly anticipating voluminous entries :)

~B