the garrison show

i will miss some things about being unemployed. the ability to sleep in till 11:00, to stay up till 4:00, to spend a day watching movies, reading a book, or writing a short story, to visit long-lost friends in faraway places, to dream of vacations i could take (but never actually do), and just generally fart around in my underwear for far too long. well, hopefully i will miss them.

i think i will be coming up on a dilemma that i might as well start thinking about now. i’m hoping that i’ll miss all those above perks because i think i’m getting close to the end of two applications, which if everything goes as planned, will result in two comparable offers. both of which, i cannot accept. thus the choice.

option #1 involves technical consulting for a pretty large company. i’d be in the government group, most likely stationed in DC (which is exactly where i want to be) but with no guarantees but also the opportunity to travel most places in the world. the work could at times be interesting, but could prove in the long run to be mundane. think officespace, although i have reason to believe it won’t be nearly that bad. i have a good number of friends who work for this company and though i wouldn’t expect to work with them, i’ve gotten a generally very positive review. even though i’ve been teaching high school for the last three years (which is my job-holding record), i feel like this is going back down my real career path. in 3-5 years, i’m doing much the same thing, unless i get bitten by the entrepreneurial bug.
option #2 seems more divergent to me. i would be doing education research and helping write standardized math tests. it seems i would have two primary responsibilities: (1) write and review test items and (2) statistically measure and analyze the validity and reliability of existing tests and test items. this may be more intellectually stimulating and i may be able to get a free graduate degree out of it. if so, this would provide direction for my career. i could see myself getting a degree either in statistics or cognitive psychology. both of those are fascinating to me and could lead down really interesting roads.

the first option will probably do better financially, unless you account for graduate school tuition with option #2. my instinct says option #2 might be more interesting, but i could be wrong about that.

what am i missing? what do you think? what should i do?

and where should i take my last vacation?