Hello all!

Well, it's August 28th. More than a little bit freaky if you ask me. I cannot believe how fast the summer has gone. Odd, as ever day seemed to drag on, but then *poof* it's the end of August and it's almost time for back to school. Sigh... And it's really really really really weird to think that this time next year I'll be living somewhere else. Time flies...

I wrote the GRE on Thursday. I am sooo happy that that is over and even happier that I won't have to write it again (barring a catastrophe on the written section). It was seriously the most stressful thing I've experienced in my 21 years. The clock constantly counting down in the corner, the sheer terror at the thought of how much the test can affect your grad school prospects. Man, it's nerve wracking! But it's over. And another stress has come to take over the empty hole: auditions. Gah! A week and a half to dust off the cobwebs. I dunno... I dunno... Cara and I are thinking of taking the low road and begging them to take us. We'll play 16th horn/bassoon. Anything! I haven't been rejected from anything for awhile, so I hope this not losing streak keeps up.

Why is it that, in an empty theatre, large families with noisy kids ALWAYS have to sit right behind you. WHY GOD WHY!?!?!?!? At the movie, they weren't THAT bad, but still, it's the principle of the thing. In empty theatres, I always respect the personal space of the other people, not just the not sitting RIGHT NEXT to someone else, but not sitting right in front of/behind them either. And why can't people WALK??? Why do they feel the need to stop dead in front of you??? Especially frosh. Man... I'm not looking forward to UofC 101. Perhaps I shall hole up in the basement and avoid the little yellow shirt led groups of frosh. Yes... good idea.

Well, yesterday was my last day of work at the lab. It's weird, because both of my jobs were at labs... Oh well, only one job now. It was a good last day; I didn't even have to go to Strathmore. It was like someone was smiling down on me... It was sad though. I really did like that job, and the people were nice, and it wasn't really hard. But the call of better pay for more relevant work was to great to ignore. And now, for the first time in more than 2 years, I can look forward to Saturdays again. I can sleep in, do whatever I want, and have a normal person weekend. Ahhhh...

So what else is new... I've been reading a lot of books lately. Likely in order to avoid doing any thesis reading, but oh well. I've read Catch-22, The DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, the first 3 Lemony Snicket books, and I'll finish A Complicated KIndness today. I'd forgotten just how much I like to read. I don't get to do a lot of "fun" reading during the year, which is quite unfortunate. Anyway, all of these books were great and I highly recommend them.

OH! Guess who I saw yesterday?!? SHANNON! And Matt, her husband. It was totally trippy. Matt is really nothing like I pictured. But I asked her how the wedding went and she said it was perfect, which is nice. It's crazy to think that people my age are married, or have kids. Yikes... I couldn't do it. School takes up most of my life at the moment. Speaking of which, grad school is really freaking me out at the moment. I mean, I'm worried about the GREs which have a direct impact on whether I get in or not, then worried about getting in, worried about funding, and worried about moving. Probably most worried about moving. I've never lived on my own before. I know it's going to be good, but the thought of trying to find a place, especially a place that will let me have dogs, moving, packing, living on a limited income. It's scary!

I read something weird in the paper today. Apparantly 2/3 of people over 30 are not "adults" in that they still live at home and/or don't have a steady job and/or aren't financially independent. That's disturbing I think. I'd like to hope that by 30 I'll be on my own with a job. I mean, unless something extreme happens to me, once I move out next year, that's it, I'm out. It's nice to know that I'll always have a home to come back to if I need it, but I doubt it'll happen.

Anyways, I should go read something (probably not thesis stuff but shhh....). If anyone's looking for a good CD, I would recommend "Transatlanticism" by Death Cab For Cutie. I can't get enough of it, it's fantastic! Ciao!