FreakyFoucault

[Sees Mechanical Engineering professor] "YOU'RE NOT MY MOM!!!"

You could take my planned approach: Show up at the University and just start yelling the names of POIs or "ENGLISH PEOPLE" and hope they 1) show up; and 2) don't think you're too cray cray.

IT IS! What am I supposed to do with myself in the mean time? Work? Puh-leaze!!!!

OSU's Open House is April 2, which seems like years from now! I actually haven't been to Columbus in a long time, so I've kind of forgotten where everything is!

I'm hoping to make a road trip out of it -- that is, if I get accepted to a few schools in the Northeast and the visit days line up. Most of my friends live up there, so I'd like to take a week off and visit them, too. And if I get accepted to anywhere in California, I'm going to try to fly out there (hence my working as many OT shifts as possible). I've never been west of Illinois, so it'd be quite the trip for this Midwesterner! Of course, now that I post this, I'm going to get 15 successive rejections, but, hey, a guy can dream.

Oh yeah, I wouldn't doubt it. When I studied abroad, I saw Fiats all over the place in Italy. Those things can barely handle a stiff breeze. But they're bright and fun, unlike my Cobalt.

I had snow tires on during the above story. They help, but they're still no match for black ice (at least when you have a car like mine that weighs twenty pounds soaking wet).

On the first icy day in December, I was driving home from work when I hit a patch of black ice (this was at night). My poor Cobalt (and poor me) went pirouetting along I-480 at roughly 65 mph. Three things happened in the following order: 1) I tried to remember whether your steer in or out of a skid; 2) I then realized that my car was still turning after 360 degrees; 3) and finally, I made a Faustian bargain to spare my life from the oncoming traffic. And here I am! Here's to hoping my soul isn't called to Hell before I manage to finish my PhD... “What art thou FreakyFoucault, but a man condemned to die?”

If you're like me and drive a Cobalt, be prepared to go car-sledding in the winter. But hope that it's not on the freeway...

That’s a good question! Probably depends on the program.

I won't lie, subzero temperatures (especially with wind chill) aren't pleasant, but you get used to it. And if it gets particularly bad, I'd recommend studying abroad during the winter semester. Rome, for example, is quite temperate in the winter, if a little rainy.

I keep telling my engineering friends that they'd make a fortune if they invented a device that quickly but safely de-snowed and de-iced your car. I'd pay a lot of money I don't have for one of those!

While I was an undergrad, during the notoriously brutal winter of '15, we had several "cold days," on which classes were cancelled because it was, I kid you not, "extremely unsafe" to go outside. Now, naturally, everyone went outside anyway to get to the campus bar, but it was still pretty darn frosty. Wussification of America? Maybe. Too darn cold to feel your face? Definitely.

Rien que pour toi, @Yanaka

I had to look this up — I’m hopeless!

Haha priceless

Last year, I remembered that my age was a Taylor Swift song. This year, I remember that last year, my age was a Taylor Swift song. But this method isn’t sustainable, so idk what imma do next year...

[Bats eyelashes] Why yes, I am!

I love his glasses! So cute Definitely. Now, the red cowboy boots? Not so much.

Right on. Wherever I land, I know I’ll be happy. And I hope the same for everyone else here.

Now if only we can convince academia to be as fashionable as Chidi. I'd totally wear his pastel chinos.

But thank God we're not moral philosophy professors hahahaha

Maya Rudolph just guest starred in the most recent episode. So you know it's good.

I don't want to be a boner (@Yanaka playfully raised this point in the Backstreet Boys thread), but having an acceptance does make things better. Work on Thursday was orders of magnitude better knowing that I'll be saying adios motherfuckers in a few months (or earlier -- I hope). That said, I'm still pretty anxious about the rest of the decisions. I've got nothing bad to say about OSU -- I'd be honored to study there -- but I kind of want to leave Ohio and the Midwest. I've been here for twenty-three years -- my entire life -- and I'd very much like a break. There's a whole world out there, after all! I want to eat freshly caught fish and smell the ocean spray; I want to live near a city with more people than I can fathom; I want to hear noise past 10 p.m.! But I'm still quite nervous, and I have a feeling that the next month will be a long one.

Grad Cafe always reels you back in... But good luck on your thesis!