When I put text on a path, it clings to the lower right corner of the path. If I move the text it warps rather than sitting on the orbit of the path's shape. What am I doing wrong? thank you!

One way of dealing with this is splitting the node at the bottom of the circle with the 'Break path at selected node' button and setting the alignment of the text to centered.

Another way is to rotate the circle. The text will move with it.

Bear in mind that the text alignment also plays a part. For this kind of layout I tend to centre my text, then rotate the circle to get it at the right place. The advantage of centring it is that any changes you make (such as editing the text or changing the font) still keep it the result balanced.

I would also use a copy of the circle (assuming you want the circle in your final design) and edit it into an arc. That way you can tweak the text position by moving the arc handles, then hide your construction path altogether by setting its opacity to 0 (if you need to edit it again, use View > Display Mode > Outline to get hold of it).