Craziness.

An Admissions Timeline:

12/12
3:00 PM: Return from Tahoe and start working
9:00 PM: Plug in ipod to laptop. Laptop freezes.
9:03 PM: Laptop will not unfreeze.
9:09 PM: Laptop is shut down. Laptop will not start up again.
9:30 PM: Laptop has miracle revival. I backup all admissions files.

12/13
10:00 AM: Roomates pack. I leave for work.
12:00 PM: Anxiety attack. Return home from work.
1:00 PM: Busily playing Kameo on the X-Box.
4:40 PM: Laptop will not turn on. Laptop has OFFICIALLY DIED.
5:00 PM: Use Jason's spare laptop. But will not connect to my printer.
5:10 PM: Will not connect to Jason's printer.
5:30 PM: Jason's desktop DOES NOT HAVE A WORD PROCESSING PROGRAM! Conclusion: out of four computers and two printers in the house, it is impossible for me to print out my writing sample.
7:00 PM: Editing writing sample based on Rovee's notes.
11:30 PM: Print out writing sample at my Uncle's house.
12:30 PM: Head for FedEx Kinkos.
1:00 AM: Spent $60 sending applications to Berkeley, Penn, and Rutgers

12/14
9:30 AM: I wake up and go to Jason's computer to email IHUM to say that I won't be coming in.
10:00 AM: Application #1 sent in (online).
10:30 AM: Application #2 sent in.
11:00 AM: Application #3 sent in.
11:30 AM: Application #4 sent in.
11:45 AM: Realize that UWisconsin's due date is also the 15th!!!
12:00 PM: I look at my writing sample as I put it into an envelope, and realize there is a MISPLACED COMMA IN MY FIRST SENTENCE!!!
12:01 PM: I freak out.
12:01:30 PM: I call Elizabeth to see if she thinks FedEx will let me get back into my mailing to eliminate evil comma.
12:30 PM: Leave Partridge and drive to California Ave.
12:45 PM: Can't find parking spot anywhere. Have car-driving anxiety attack.
12:58 PM: Pull over to the side of the road.
1:00 PM: Low point of the day. Sitting on sidewalk sobbing as passerby stare. One woman asks if I'm all right, to which I look up and smile and say, "oh, I'm fine. Don't worry."
1:10 PM: EXTREMELY NICE old man lets me do what most be the most anal-retentive thing I've ever done, finding the FedEx envelopes to be sent out and opening them up for me, letting me white-out the offending comma in the three writing samples.
1:11 PM: He helps another customer as I work on this.
1:12 PM: He looks at me as I finish and asks how i'm doing. "Doing all right?"
1:17 PM: FedExes successfully taken care of. Make copies of writing sample for next batch. . .

12/15
12:30 PM: I give in and call ETS to get my Literature GRE scores. Horrible tension: Will my scores be abysmal? Will I remember my SSN? Will someone from work walk in my office at the critical moment? Will my cell reception cut out right after I enter my credit card #?
12:31 PM: The recorded message drones on and my hands start shaking.
12:32 PM: I get my scores! And they are. . . good? Bad? All of a sudden it all becomes relative and I start googling "literature gre scores" to figure out if they're good or not. According to the UCSB website, they take people with a percentage over 85. . . right about where I am. . . I guess it's decent then. . . I try to calm down.
12:37 PM: Since I have no work to do and everyone's in a meeting, I start posting on my blog.

Sorry, this has got to be the most boring post ever to anyone but me. But I don't really think anyone reads my posts anyway.

i'm not coming out. . . till this is all over. . . la la la. . . and we'll become. . . cigarettes when our bodies finally go!

http://www.weirdfortunecookies.com/f_starship_ride.htm

and, what I want for christmas:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007Y08LK/qid=1133979296/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-1595432-8411302?n=507846&s=dvd&v=glance

I like Marie's habit of listing her current obsessions, so I think I'm going to do a bit of that today:

Current Obsessions (preoccupations?):

The Smiths
Gatorade
PG Tips
Gray (in clothing)
My $30 puffy 'fur'-trimmed hood coat from Costco
Keira Knightley
Stuffed penguins
Warm, snuggly shoes, sweaters, mittens, i.e. EVERYTHING
Sun chips
The Facebook
My new reorganized closet
Cucumber
Villanelles


On another topic, i've been researching the Faculty at the various grad schools where I am going to apply, and I am noticing, rather politically in-correctly, that 1) Almost all black faculty do African-American literature; 2) White people rarely do African-American literature; 3) Almost all people with funny sounding non-European names do Post-Colonial literature. I mean, right, this hardly comes as a surprise, but I find it interesting that 1) these areas aren't more diverse; and 2) As a white American I'm kind of afraid to ever make any kind of comment on either area of literature, which may be the case with a lot of other young white literary scholars, which may be why we all end up doing like, modernism (guys) or Romantics and Jane Austen (girls). Post-colonial, especially, can be a really delicate area to comment on, to my experience. I suppose, however, it's also currently more innovative, which may mean it's a smart place to be right now. Anyway. I overgeneralize.