Journey Back to Cowtown

Tomorrow morning I'm heading back to the homeland-- Columbus, Ohio.

I can not WAIIIIIIIIIT to catch up with my family and friends. I want:

• breakfast with Beth
• catch-up and mutual googly-eyed boyfriend story sharing with Arielle
• shopping with Martha
• dinner with Tami
• more shopping and happy funtimes with Jamie and Susanna
• coffee with the Moore girls
• tomfoolery with Emily
• life re-evaluation with Sandy
• yummy thanksgibbin with my awesome siblings
• all manner of cheek-pinching and snuggly business with the nine offspring of said siblings
• and --most of all-- youngest-child syndrome lovins from my Mommy.

Seriously. I love home.

c'est la vie, et la vie est bonne.

computer-chair psychologists, this one's all yours

I took that GRE, all right. I kicked it right in the teeth.

I'm actually pretty happy with my score. It wouldn't get me into an ivy league grad program, by any means, but it'll be quite sufficient for any of the graduate plans I've had in mind.

So now it's time for the obligatory grad school waffle. Am I going to go through with it? Am I just going after it because I feel I have a moral obligation to fulfill my mental potential? Is there any part of this plan that involves me doing this just for ME? Or is that even the point?

I can hear a cadre of thirty- and forty-somethings screaming after me, "DO IT NOW! GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY, DO IT NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN!" as they shake a can of Lemon Pledge and prepare to dust the baseboards while their 2.5 children are away at school.

I'm having a hard enough time finding a job for when my fellowship's over as it is. It seems kind of self-flagellatory to jump into a new job and part-time graduate school in the same year, doesn't it?

Maybe I should wait until I'm more established in a routine before adding school. I wish I could just do this program full-time, but financially it's just not an option.

All this from an overdeveloped sense of self-improvement.

I don't think it'd be too much of a stretch to call it a self-improvement complex, even.

Or just straight-up, dirty ol' perfectionism.

commencing schlump mode

Tomorrow's the GRE, and folks... I'm not gonna act like I've been studying a whole lot.

cause I haven't.

I've been spending all my free time with my, uh... boyfriend.

Geez. I feel like I should highlight that word with pink glitter or something(a la MySpace graphics).

Anyway, he left today for a month-long work trip. So... a.) knowing that it was coming, we've spent tons of time together lately, and b.) now I get to be THAT GIRL who whines about missing her boyfriend. Something I clearly should have gotten out of my system in high school.

Better late than never at all, I guess.

So tonight I'm gonna go be emo in a coffee shop and do some last-minute brush-uppins for the GRE.

And tomorrow I'll be taking it while all my friends are gathered on my front porch cheering on the Richmond Marathon runners. They'll be eating pancakes and drinking coffee. ON MY PORCH. And I will be writing essays in a testing center in Glen Allen.

Some choose a marathon of the body; I choose a marathon of the mind.

heh. I almost kept a straight face while writing that.

can't complain...

I'm sorta glad I got this research business out of my system before I committed to something deadly like graduate school.

(side note: i AM planning to go to grad school next fall, but the program i'm doing is NOT research-based.)

Someone in the lab made a great analogy to research in science as opposed to other kinds of research-based graduate studies.

"It's just like going into the library to do your research, except the books are all out of order and have no labels."

Some days I just don't have the energy to use my brain. My ASM presentation is tomorrow, and I can not wait to get that over with. Then I'm taking the GRE next Saturday. I'm only SLIGHTLY mentally occupied.

You may have noticed that I abruptly quit posting about match.com.

That is because I abruptly quit using match.com.

Why is that? Well, I'm glad you asked.

It's because I don't want any more matches.

Because I found one. Or rather, he found me.

And for now, that's all I have to say about that. :-)

Iconic

Sung to the tune of Alanis Morrissette's "Ironic."


An old man and his running-mate
he won the primary after a two-term wait
Or a black guy and a whats-his-face
In a big deal election, two thousand and eight
And isn't it iconic, don't you think?

It's like ray-ee-aiiiin on election day
A free Starbucks when you've already paid
A Krispy Kreme when you're gainin' weight
And who knows if your vote matterrrrrrrs

Misters Ben and Jerry have caught your eye
Free scoops of iiiice cream if you have time to stop by
Do you want Barack-y Road or McCain Chip tonight?
And as you eat free Chick-Fil-A
You'll think, "well, wasn't that nice"

And isn't it iconic, don't you think?

It's like ray-ee-aiiiin on election day
A free Starbucks when you've already paid
A Krispy Kreme when you're gainin' weight
And who knows if your vote matterrrrrrrs

Well, votes have a funny way of judging up on you
When you think everything's okay and the decision you made was right
And votes have a funny way of singling you out when
You think everything's gone wrong and the radicals are all up
In your face

It's a moral issue when the economy ain't great
It's "no compromise" when there's too much at stake
It's like ten thousand wrongs when all you want is what's right
It's voting for the man I agree with
and despising some thing in his life.

And isn't it iconic... don't you think?
A little too iconic... yeah, I really DO think.