I am also a Mathematician. I generally call myself a Physicist & Mathematician.
Physicists Unite!
Are you a Physicist?
Hmmm...great personality...ultra cool...intelligent...I think I love you! 
sadly, not a physicist. but i just about fit the rest of your description, except that i've probably never been cool in my life - i'm far too keen on enjoying myself to be cool.
My definition of cool is not the standard one defined by society. Trust me, you are cool in my book!
My research was "space" physics, namely atmospheric sputtering on Mars. Here is a link to the abstract to my paper:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000JGR...105.1659J
My advisor continues to work with NASA on all of the Mars missions and the data they have been collecting has corroborated many of the calculations I made ten years ago. I can't express how much I wish I was working on thi sstuff instead of what I do.
Way cool. How come you aren't working on it?
Well, I have tried to get a job with NASA for years. Living just south of Washington DC makes it difficult enough to get into any other industry but what I am in, but NASA is a bit insestuous. Even when they were hiring a bunch after the Columbia disaster, I still never got an interview, despite two of the positions I applied for being perfect fits with my education and experience. My hopes are that if I finally get back and finish my PhD., I will be able to use that to get my foot in the door, since I will be working directly with folks at NASA on my research. But it is all a big if. I still have to keep my current job to pay the bills and support four other people. They will pay for my continuing education, but then I am committed for three more years. I may be able to get my tuition covered by grants my advisor gets from NASA, but then I still have to find the time to do my real job and school work. School is one hour SW of my home and work is one hour E from my home. In other words, opposite directions. I don’t know, I have been talking about this for five years. I make real good money with what I am doing now, but I hate it. Plus, I will always feel like a failure if I never finish my PhD. That had been my goal since I was ten.
