rosali

I want to jump on this animal photo train! This is my kitten on the first day we had him. He's about 6 months old now, but I left after we'd only had him for a month, so this is how I remember him. Apparently he's huge now. He's a big baby and wants ALL YOUR ATTENTION. Needless to say, I miss him like crazy.

I miss cuddling with soft cat tummies.

The coffee machine in the teacher's room where I work puts MASSIVE quantities of sugar in your coffee even when you select "no sugar," so I'm just going to brave my next (hopefully short) meeting on an empty stomach and then trek home to leftover Vietnamese food.

That sounds so good. I should go eat something; I haven't had food since breakfast.

@piglet33 Chocolate chip pancakes?

Hm, not cake, but since we're talking about baked goods, I might make lemon squares today. I need to get rid of a bunch of lemons before I leave for a week.

@gingin6789 Good idea! It didn't even occur to me that they might pay for me to come. Hopefully I'll be able to get the time off work if it comes to that (which I hope it does!).

YUP AHHHHHHHH FREAKING OUT. I can't tell if I'm experiencing anxiety-induced nausea or stress hunger. And I likely will be for a month. AHHHHHH. Also, pretty sure that, if I get accepted anywhere, I can't go to any campus weekends since I'm super far away from everything, and transatlantic flights are expensive.

Aww, I'm sorry! They say bad things come in threes, though and there are three bad things, so hopefully you'll get good news soon!

That's true; I a notification for Northwestern on the results board already...it's super early for that! I'm hoping it's not a bad sign for me, though, since Northwestern's one of the four I applied to haha. Luck to you, too! Doesn't seem like you need it though!

One of my biggest worries is that I'll get a notification while I'm teaching (I'm not supposed to look at my phone/email during class, but you can only watch the same TED Talk so many times before it's not interesting anymore), and either be like "GUYS I GOT ACCEPTED YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW GREAT THIS IS!" or cry in front of a room full of high schoolers. And I have no desire to relive my junior year of high school.

@haltheincandescent That's interesting...I don't think it'll make me check my email more, partly because I'm pretty sure none of the programs I applied to will be sending out notifications till early/mid February. The obsessive checking is mostly because I can't stop thinking "BUT WHAT IF..." and it's driving me crazy. That and the very real chance that I won't get accepted anywhere I applied (which I didn't think about when I chose my programs because I'm a dummy).

Waiting's a zillion times harder on weekends (for me), because I have more free time/wifi to check my email. I know I'm probably not going to hear anything. Does that stop me? OF COURSE NOT.

@piglet33 Pretty much the same story for me! How many comp lit programs have professors interested in psychoanalytic theories of identity, translation, and Latin American immigrant narratives, AND are kind of close-ish to Massachusetts (where my/my boyfriend's families live)? Not many. It was a stretch for a couple of schools, too, which just makes me more anxious.

@piglet33 AH, yeah, the fact that some people applied to 10+ programs makes me so nervous! Why didn't I think to apply to more?! Also, I'm really concerned because my research interests are kind of obscure, and I had a really hard time finding ANY professors who had similar ones. It seems like lit professors don't tend to update their online profiles often, and it's so difficult to tell what someone's research interests are based on a webpage that hasn't been updated in 7 years.

I've heard nothing from anywhere, and I only applied to 4 programs. I've seen a couple notifications from one of them on the results board, but I'm trying not to worry since most of the results in the past came out in early-mid February. loljk I'm worrying like my life depended on it.

I second using Magoosh! It's not cheap, but it's totally worth it. The tutorial videos and practice tests helped me raise my verbal score 4 points, and my quant score, like, 10. I studied/practiced for about an hour (almost) every day in the few months leading up to the tests, and scored slightly above the average accepted scores for my programs. It was waaaaaay more effective than the book I had. Plus, you get to use it for 6 months, so after you take the GRE once, you can look at the areas you want to focus on, and really hone in on those. Good luck!

@gingin6789 Congratulations! You must be so thrilled! Good luck with your interview!

@bugabooo An old roommate of mine and I used to drink cheap wine with crazy straws after finals! Either straight from the bottle, or from a mug, depending on how long the crazy straw was. Class.

Also, @Pink Fuzzy Bunny that sucks so much! If it helps, phishing is a pretty common occurrence, so I'm sure everyone understands. I'm also pretty shy, and agonize over every word of every email I send, so I can imagine how terrible it must feel to be phished!

@rhombusbombusCONGRATULATIONS! It's so nice to hear good news from people. @piglet33 No worries about the tagging haha. Tagging can be a little weird on here sometimes. I made chana masala and chapatis from scratch, which was surprisingly easy, but pretty time-consuming. It's really hard to find good spicy food at restaurants where I'm living, so I've been learning how to make Indian/Mexican/Ethiopian food at home. It's fun, a useful skill, and a great way to distract myself!

@piglet33 I'm looking up fancy/difficult recipes to cook so I can do that while watching Buffy. Also, if your library was built before the early 2000's, it should have ethernet connection!

People are starting to post acceptances from one of the programs I applied to...steeling myself for rejection or celebration with an unreasonable amount of chocolate.

Yeah, I've done Skype interviews wearing a nice sweater and jeans. You want to look put together (don't wear pajamas, do wear pants), but don't stress about clothing! Go over your questions, think about how you'll answer their questions, and make sure all your tech is fully functional (speakers, webcam, lighting etc). Good luck!

That's how I feel every day haha. A biiiiiiig cup of coffee, a Spanish tortilla (eggs, potatoes, and onions), and a book usually help.