WendyDarling

342Just got rejected from USC's American Studies program. No surprises there, it's crazy competitive and I applied knowing full well it was a shot in the dark. So now I have heard from a total of 4 schools and I'm batting .500. Five more to weigh in and screw up my stats, but Babe Ruth made it into the Hall of Fame with a .342 lifetime average. (And yes, I did look that up so I could continue with my baseball metaphor.) My ego has taken more of a hit tonight from learning just how difficult it is for me to squish these 15 pages into 7. I've fallen vainly in love with my own words and ideas. The good news about the USC rejection is that I can now freely write a non-academic fangirl-y love-letter to Deborah Harkness gushing over her historical paranormal novel "A Discovery of Witches".

And I think -- if I interpreted those rejections correctly -- they were both Medievalists who were contacted by a POI. So, seems like a kindness on the part of that particular POI. But yes. If Columbia is going to reject me, I'd like them to hurry up and yank the bandaid off already. Same for UNC. The posting that says someone talked to the UNC coordinator who said if you didn't hear by the end of this week "it would be wise to look at other schools"? That's still too vague for my taste. I'm waiting for fat ladies. And cold, hard, rejection letters.

I'm having an uncontrollable urge to hum the Twilight Zone theme song. You know, cause of the eerie silence....or maybe I'm just losing my mind.

I think no one should give up on anything until they are told to explicitly in a cold, polite letter from an official source. Or until the fat lady sings. Whichever suits your fancy.

I'm giving all the credit to Toulouse for starting the day off with positive thinking.

Today, I was officially rejected from Wisconsin (letter in the mail, but no surprises) and accepted with funding to Rutgers. My positive feeling from earlier has not worn off. Nor has my complete lack of ability to work on my thesis. Hopefully my advisor will take the good news about Rutgers in exchange for those pages I'm supposed to send her. It would be nice to actually finish this MA before I'm supposed to start a PhD.

Academia.edu will now start tracking who visits your page there. If they come via Google result, it will show up in a graph on your dashboard. It won't be able to tell you any previous Googling that took place, or report any instance that someone Googles your name and doesn't click on the academia.edu link to your profile. So. Ultimately good for neurotic checking of things (which I am obviously a fan of) but not a source of total knowledge. (side note: "Googling" is my favorite word)

I had that same feeling when I woke up, Toulouse. I'm feeling very zen about everything. Plus, it's sunny here.

For real? PM me the recipe? Please please please?

I made Smitten Kitchen cookies today. Did not take nearly enough time. My advisor would kill me if she knew this was how I was spending my "writing days". I'm struggling to remember that it ain't over til it's over and I can't count myself rejected from schools (ahem UNC and Columbia) until they actually reject me. I just wish they'd get it over with already! I feel like a middle schooler waiting for the crush to write back on the "Do you like me Y or N?" note. (someone feel free to chime in with an "Oseirus = Y" joke here)

Worst is the emails that I occasionally get from a University that will not be named inviting me to take a survey about my application process. Before they have sent out any results. I've gotten at least three emails from official looking accounts with subject lines that say "University of BlahBlah". Every time I have a brief heart attack before I click on the email and see it's just another friendly survey invitation. Seriously. It's like a very sick form of torture. Okay. Now with the cookies for real. Ahem.

Don't forget option C! A torrent of fabulous acceptances! AND A NEW CAR. (I'm a little punchy. That "notifications will come from UNC later today...." message is totally messing with me.) I'm off to make cookies to distract myself from staring nail-bitingly at screens. It's not helping me write my thesis. If anyone wants a cookie, please come over.

I noticed a new acceptance from USC showed up on the results board. Anyone want to claim it?

You guys, I've elected to keep this window open and obsessively refresh it every time I take a break from my writing and am tempted to obsessively refresh something. I think it's healthier. Or at least slightly less crazy-making. (I thought hearing from a school would make me feel less jumpy and anxiety-ridden about my email. Seems I was not exactly correct. )

Congratulations Yale and Columbia acceptances! I've got radio silence from Columbia over here, so this news is making me bite my fingernails with new investment. Feels like this week is going to be a doozy!

Posting to claim the Minnesota acceptance. Woke up to a lovely letter from the DGS. Eeep! Suddenly this feels a lot more real.

I'm with qb. Quietly riveted to the news that is pouring in. Congratulations to everyone that has heard good news recently! And condolences to those who have gotten rejections. Radio silence on this end, which I think is driving me slightly mad. The only school I applied to that has sent acceptances thus far is UW, but I haven't heard anything from then either way (which I'm reading as a bad sign, but I can't access the website, so I don't really have any information -- I was in touch with tech people there who told me that they were aware of the problem and that I should just to contact the program directly for information regarding my status. Oy.) I went in to meet with my advisor today (I'm in an MA program) and talking about the direction of my thesis was soothing in a way that it isn't usually. Nice to be reminded of the here and now, I guess. Hard to focus on my research, though, when I feel like the future is so volatile! Thanks to everyone for all the updates and encouraging postings this past week, though, makes the waiting feel less lonely.

In honor of the last day of January, I would like to join the ranks of delukers. Mostly because it was really nice in the wee hours of the morning to see that I wasn't the only one using my insomnia to reload my inbox. (thanks, DukeLover.) So, you know, I'm paying it forward in the hopes that my craziness will be able to provide calm for someone else. Or something. In any case, hello, nice to meet you, I hope we study vastly different things.