premonitions

Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies; and so are signs; and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity has not yet found the key. I never laughed at presentiments in my life, because I have had strange ones of my own. (98 points; you can all still guess on the earlier quote, from my post on Spider-Man 3.)

I must admit, I have laughed at presentiments. Or at least rolled my eyes at them. This morning, though, I had a weird one myself.

After waking up the first time and then dozing back into that state between wakefulness and sleep, I dreamt that I had received an email from the Linguistics Department secretary at Lancaster University in the UK. I had the dream several times, and each time the email said something different. Usually it stressed me out, in one way or another.

Anyway, after having this dream about five times, I decided it was time to actually get up and start the day. So I checked my email, which is frequently the first thing I do in the mornings. Lo and behold: there, in very deed, sat an email from Marj.

For those of you who don't know, I have applied back at Lancaster University, where I previously earned a Master's Degree, in the hopes of finishing a doctoral degree from there. The application took longer than I'd expected to get off in the mail, and then it reached the university on the first day of their four-week break between terms. So then I had to wait another month before I had any hope of hearing back from them. And then I waited another week after their new term started before I dared email Marj with a follow-up. I sent that email on Monday of this week, and since she usually writes back within a day or two, I was surprised that I hadn't heard anything more.

But today, there it was. The Department has approved my application and recommended my admission to the Postgraduate Admissions Office, who have probably already sent an official acceptance letter. Hopefully, it will be here within a few days. Maybe a week, two at the most.

HUZZAH!!!

So, here's the plan, then. I will be leaving Denton by the end of this month (huzzah, again!) and spending most of the summer in Idaho and Utah with family. I've been basically planning to live with my sister, and I hope that still works for her. In the very early part of the summer, I will be sending out emails/letters of interest to universities and colleges in the Seattle, Tacoma, Chicago, and Washington, DC, areas, looking for an adjunct faculty position. In the meantime, I will change my degree status at UNT from PhD to MA, take the Master's comprehensive exam in June, and graduate with an MA in English Literature in August. In conjunction with Erin, I will choose one of the above-mentioned places to live in. Around August, we'll move in together and start working. I will start my doctoral program from Lancaster, working by distance. I will have to travel out to England at least a couple of times during the program, to meet with my advisor (Elena Semino) and do some intensive research. The whole degree should take no longer than three years at the very most, and I'm shooting for having it done in two.

As I was driving home from Spider-Man 3 earlier today, singing along with Muse, I suddenly realized that I'm leaving Denton. I don't have to ever come back if I don't want to. What a freeing feeling. (Except that I will be coming back, at least for the Master's comps, and possibly again November for a graduate student conference on medieval studies, at which I hope to present something.)