Argh. I am sorry, I am a noob on this board so I haven't figured out how to reply to a post other than quoting people!
Thanks Daisy123! My friends are good people, but I am an adult student who made a career change so most of my friends are non-academics and, while happy for me, they don't always "get it" when I am babbling about the GRE or whatever!
This looks like the perfect place to be able to say "Grr! Argh!" and get sympathy/constructive advice