Thankful?

continuing what AML started, I am thankful for:
everything warm and fuzzy
the usual cheesy things
red wine
the first snow of the year
netflix
law and order at any hour of the day
and so much more.

Things for which I am Thankful, a list

The list
nachos
insurance
day planners
friendship! no, pizza! wait! both!
spell-check

I know it's old news by now, but please, can we take a moment to mourn the cancellation of "Arrested Development"?

I feel it is somehow my fault, as the announcement was made the SAME DAY that I put my last netflix of season 2 in the mail. Or maybe that's just a coincidence.

also, I know many of you don't care, but it looks like the post-Theo Red Sox are trading away the farm. But, oddly, I think it's a good thing, as long as Youk isn't totally screwed.

Hiatus

So, after a gueling sweeps week, Ann Marie's graduate school misadventure is going on hold for a while. At least until she remembers how to tie her own shoes...

Near Elimination

I am ruminating, from the edge.
Today, if I worked for a real company that cared about actual profit margin (for my company, if we actually make our budget, it just means we all get bonuses, which is bad for our business, because they'd have to pay us a living wage, or something), I would have been fired. Actually, I would have been fired on Friday, but whatever. There is still a distinct, yet utterly passive-aggressive and unclear, possibility that I will be fire in January.
On Friday, I described this rather embarrassing situation as being "a lot like getting a D in Core Bio." I think the description is apt.
To be bad at something sucks. To be bad at something you don't care about is slightly less bad, though equally irritating. To be beholden to idiots for your daily bread, and to not be good at something that should be hard to do at all, is soul shatteringly mortifying.

You're Just Jealous of my Skill-z

Some of you witnessed Massachusetts' greatest talent on display last Saturday. I am speaking, of course, of the dancing to some fine 80's music that CTHJB and I displayed.

So vote, does this innate talent come from Boston's "Dirty Water", the "tea in the harbor", the "blatant liberalism" or something else? Feel free to weigh in.

Meanwhile, at the party where I demonstrated the aforemention skillz, the cold I've been fighting off successfully migrated into my nose and head into my voice and chest. So now when I speak I sound like a frog. For a good time you should come visit me at the box office tonight before TWG. I'll take your money with a croak, it'll be good for a laugh.

I haven't posted in a while because my new job actually demands my full attention (I know, right?). I know you all (both of you. Yeah, you S. S. and L.P.) have really missed it. But just picture me 80's dancing, that should make it all better.

Day 3, or the doldrums

For a mildly hungover girl, I have managed to worry very little about graduate school today. Yesterday was not a "gym&gre" night, nor will tonight be.
Accomplished:
1 session with therapist in which he ascribes my decision to go to graduate school as a latent homosexual tendency manifesting itself through perfectionist, controlling behavior (JK!! No really. I'm joking. I'm not serious. God, I'll never live this down.)
1 email from the Gerald Ford School if Public Policy that makes me feel weird; one because they wrote my name "Ann marie" and two because Gerald Ford, not so much my favorite international relater or president. Whatever.

I am so picky.

Day 2, fairly smooth sailing

21.2 miles on the bike.
Sentence completion and antonyms: check.

I am practically the Lance Armstrong of this GRE-gym plan. Except that I am not a lover of Sheryl Crow, nor is anyone pressuring me to a) run for governor of Texas or b) ride bikes with President George W. Bush. But in my own mind, my purpose is clear and my motives pure. Also, I've never had testicular cancer. Or testicles. Never mind. The moment's over.

Sadly, I've run into a slight hitch with regards to the gym aspect of the plan: rehydrating with beer is a bad idea, and not particularly efficient; not just for my liver and kidneys, but for my ability to stay awake long enough to say goodnight to the old ball and chain. Now I know that there are some of you in this world who will see this as an opportunity to take the CTHJB off my hands, but I say "If you try to ____ my man, I will seek ______ against you." Alternately, provide the antonym for "FRIENDSHIP."

So, two days down, two months to go.

P.S. If this doesn't work out, I am going to move to New York City to start a theater company on the Upper East Side with my buddies from college. No, seriously. Hey! Stop laughing. I always support your ideas. Support my artistic vision, okay?

The Odyssey begins

The future holds many exciting things for all of us, I am sure. Someday, Heidi will be in Congress and Jon will be the next Josh Lyman/Donna Moss, depending on his attitude that particular day; Mel will run her own party-planning and child-saving business, Margo will have made out with brad Pitt, and Anna will make films that star Vanessa Redgrave. I believe in the resiliancy of the human spirit, and the lyric "ain't no mountain high enough." Seriously, if George W. Bush can own a baseball team then I can do something meaningful and fullfilling, right?
Right...
Today, the quest begins. Well, actually, it started a long time ago, and was formalized over the weekend. Graduate School. To be specific a Master's in Public Policy with a concentration in International Relations (not sex trafficking, but thanks), West Africa (Liberia, Sierra Leone), and Peace and Conflict Studies (an actual academic discipline). I invite you to join me on this most perillous of journeys.
The Plan has many parts, the most important of which is moral support. Every day, I wake up and think about whether or not I am capable of accomplishing this goal that I have cxreated myself; and everyday, I think "No, you idiot! You can't even file your own taxes!" And therefore, everyday, I request that my fragile ego be stroked. Part 2: the GRE. This is a mountain less steep than it is muddy and covered in poison oak. But I will navigate the irritation and the mindlessness of it all to acheive its heights. And I will do so by studying my GRE practice book from the Princeton Review (the suckers who did not help me improve my SAT scores; oh, wait. That makes me the sucker. Hmm.) at the gym several (between 1 and 4) times a week. Seeing as how I haven't gone to the gym, for which I pay a whopping $50 a month, in like four months, this is doubly tough, but doubly rewarding. Plus the soap in the gym showers smells like coconuts. Delicious coconuts. The most important thing I've learned so far is the "the week before the GRE is not a time to drastically change anything: don't quit smoking, dont start smoking, don't quit coffee, don't start coffee, don't start a relationship, don't end a relationship. The week before the GRE needs to be smooth sailing." Tell me about it. Part 3: the actual Applications and everything else. This is not a part I have actually tried to tackle yet, but I'm getting there. An update will be provided as soon as my pop-up window blocker on Firefox crashes the Yale application site, and I loose weeks worth of personal statements and rec letters.
So, anyway, so far I have:
1 rec letter promised (from the dreamy Dr. Hall)
1 Graduate School Fair attended (thank Jon)
3 school application websites unsuccessfully navigated (Yale, Kennedy School of Government and The Ford School at the University of Michigan)
2 supportive parents, who may foot the bill for the test fees and application costs
1 panic attack (last night, as the Yale sitestarted to look like the third circle of hell)
22.4 miles on the stationary bike
10 analogy problems completed, 7 right

It's like I'm half-way there.
Pray for me.