Let's Distract Ourselves!

[Pezpoet]

Anyone else losing their mind while knowing full well it could be another 4 weeks before admission decisions? What are y'all doing to stay sane? What are you binge watching (or eating)? Travel? Sports? Leisure? 

I for one adopted a puppy in the fall. (Super cool idea to get a dog when applying to grad school.) So now we're finally working on heeling. 

[punctilious]

YES. I'm not the applicant, my husband is, but I'm going insane. I've been reading Harry Potter and watching Jane the Virgin as a distraction. I also start three college courses next week in addition to my full-time communications/design job, so I'm pretty busy. Yet I still manage to obsessively check the results board and forum...

I wish I could get a puppy. We have two adorable cats that are a source of joy, though!

He has an interview with Maryland tomorrow so we have been extensively preparing for that. And then we're planning to have a movie night to get our mind off of everything. I just wish we could fast forward!

[Ufffdaaa]

I've been binge watching The Good Wife. I'm at the end of season 7. I have no idea what I'll watch next. Any recommendations?

Watching tv doesn't stop me from checking the schools' websites/gradcafe repeatedly throughout the day though. And I'm not even sure I'd actually accept an offer if I receive one! 

[FreakyFoucault]

48 minutes ago, Wooshkuh said:

I've been binge watching The Good Wife.

That was a fantastic decision, @Wooshkuh—definitely one of my favorite shows. 

In addition to keeping up with The Good Place (much different than The Good Wife, but a great program nonetheless), I've been rewatching Sex and the City, because why the fuck not, and also getting my butt kicked on the treadmill and in the weight room. But most exciting (for me, at least), I've begun to play piano again, and I'm honestly so much happier than I've been in the last six months. Of course, being done with apps has certainly helped, but I think returning to music, my first love, has done the most to restore my sanity. 

Work still sucks, so I've been spending a lot of time at the office checking in with you lovely people (shhh don't tell...) Other than that, I've been reading as much as I can and trying to catch up with people I neglected when I was working on the apps. But I will admit that I get excited every time my phone buzzes after receiving a new email. Can't be helped! 

Also, I'll be wishing your husband good luck, @punctilious! Fingers crossed!

 

Edited January 17, 2018 by FreakyFoucault
How could I forget punctilious??

[LeeLeeCzechIrish]

Hi all! Long time stalker of the GC! Now that apps are in, I thought I would distract myself by chiming in on the forums. I felt the need to commiserate with everyone waiting it out-i literally have a mini-heart attack anytime the chimney cleaner or red cross calls! I know it is too early to hear anything from my programs (all of which had deadlines only 15 days ago) but nonetheless, I keep checking results boards, email, etc.

Just had a game of thrones "discussion night" with some friends so that was a nice distraction.

[mk-8]

I’m finishing up my MA now and have plenty to be doing (thesis, teaching, one last course), but that doesn’t stop me from obsessively opening portals and checking emails. 

I’m finishing up the second season of Stranger Things right now. It’s quiet good, but I like the first season better (I think). I also knit, so I’ve been trying to get better at that. 

Mostly I’ve been trying to cook new recipes and work out more. I definitely have a grad school body after the last year and need to spend more time on self care. I’ve recently been trying more veggie friendly/vegan recipes, so if anyone has any good ones send them my way!! I also have two black cats, Merlin and Edgar (who we believe is Edgar Allan Poe reincarnated). 

I rewatched Sex and the City last year @FreakyFoucault! I’ve always been a fan, but my god some of the jokes on that show did NOT age well. My favorite, though, is in the pilot when Samantha says “He’s the next Donald Trump!” 

[Jerry Renault]

Nothing like a bottle of scotch watching the snow fall.

Might slow things down, but brought a little peace to me.

[LeeLeeCzechIrish]

@mk-8 huge fan of stranger things!! Someone recommended "Dark" on Netflix. Similar to Stranger Things. Also finishing my MA and wrote five really polished pages of my thesis today! Yay me!

[mk-8]

5 minutes ago, LeeLeeCzechIrish said:

@mk-8 huge fan of stranger things!! Someone recommended "Dark" on Netflix. Similar to Stranger Things. Also finishing my MA and wrote five really polished pages of my thesis today! Yay me!

I’ll have to check it out!!! Congrats on getting the pages done!! Today was my “just write your thesis dammit” and turned into “open a new word doc and stare at it for hours.” Getting started really is the hardest part. 

[FreakyFoucault]

 

33 minutes ago, mk-8 said:

It’s quiet good, but I like the first season better (I think).

Agreed.

29 minutes ago, Jerry Renault said:

Nothing like a bottle of scotch watching the snow fall.

 

Agreed. Especially if it’s Lagavulin.

31 minutes ago, mk-8 said:

I rewatched Sex and the City last year @FreakyFoucault! I’ve always been a fan, but my god some of the jokes on that show did NOT age well. My favorite, though, is in the pilot when Samantha says “He’s the next Donald Trump!” 

Agreed. And when I heard that, I sighed with a world-weary grimace, “Oh, honey, if you only knew!”

[ashley623]

I'm getting my tonsils cut out next week. Maybe I'll be so distracted from the pain (and the medication) that I'll forget to obsessively check my email? 

[bumbleblu]

@punctilious I have gotten back into Harry Potter in a big way as well. It helps. 

I've been off from teaching for the last month, and it has been agonizing. I'm hoping that the semester will provide some distraction. 

Best wishes, @katie64! At least you'll have a few hours' break from your inbox, anyway. 

[JustPoesieAlong]

Nothing sane or healthy about how often I check my emails/the results board/this forum, but I'm not gonna pretend like that's gonna stop soon. I do make an effort to leave my phone in the opposite side of the house when I'm at home to reduce the obsessive check-ins. In the meantime, I am trying to read more--although I was silly enough to think I could get a "head start" with grad school and work on my reading list for that. After the implied rejection from Emory (since I didn't get invited to interview), I'm feeling disheartened and find I want to binge-watch TV shows instead. I'm currently finishing up The Good Place, Black Mirror, and The End of the F***ing World. I have plans to start The Crown, Dark, Mindhunter, Godless, Glow, and like 10 other shows. The End of the F***ing World is on Netflix and is definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea since it's dark comedy and pretty violent, but I'm crazy about it. I've also been playing Yoshi's Woolly World and working on jigsaw puzzles. Really living life while I wait, lol. 

[mk-8]

11 hours ago, FreakyFoucault said:

Agreed. And when I heard that, I sighed with a world-weary grimace, “Oh, honey, if you only knew!”

Sometimes I think maybe they did. ?

 

26 minutes ago, JustPoesieAlong said:

Nothing sane or healthy about how often I check my emails/the results board/this forum, but I'm not gonna pretend like that's gonna stop soon. I do make an effort to leave my phone in the opposite side of the house when I'm at home to reduce the obsessive check-ins. In the meantime, I am trying to read more--although I was silly enough to think I could get a "head start" with grad school and work on my reading list for that. After the implied rejection from Emory (since I didn't get invited to interview), I'm feeling disheartened and find I want to binge-watch TV shows instead. I'm currently finishing up The Good Place, Black Mirror, and The End of the F***ing World. I have plans to start The Crown, Dark, Mindhunter, Godless, Glow, and like 10 other shows. The End of the F***ing World is on Netflix and is definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea since it's dark comedy and pretty violent, but I'm crazy about it. I've also been playing Yoshi's Woolly World and working on jigsaw puzzles. Really living life while I wait, lol. 

Coming into my MA I had the same idea. I’ll read over the summer! I got a reading list from old advisors and was going to try and read a book a week. Then summer started and I was like lol why am I trying to jumpstart work ? I say binge watch while you can!

[punctilious]

25 minutes ago, JustPoesieAlong said:

Nothing sane or healthy about how often I check my emails/the results board/this forum, but I'm not gonna pretend like that's gonna stop soon. I do make an effort to leave my phone in the opposite side of the house when I'm at home to reduce the obsessive check-ins. In the meantime, I am trying to read more--although I was silly enough to think I could get a "head start" with grad school and work on my reading list for that. After the implied rejection from Emory (since I didn't get invited to interview), I'm feeling disheartened and find I want to binge-watch TV shows instead. I'm currently finishing up The Good Place, Black Mirror, and The End of the F***ing World. I have plans to start The Crown, Dark, Mindhunter, Godless, Glow, and like 10 other shows. The End of the F***ing World is on Netflix and is definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea since it's dark comedy and pretty violent, but I'm crazy about it. I've also been playing Yoshi's Woolly World and working on jigsaw puzzles. Really living life while I wait, lol. 

My husband has been trying to get a "head start" for the language exam (at least Maryland's), which they want you to take in the first year. You have to choose two books in the language that they'll select a 350(?) word segment from for you to translate, I think. I gave him Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin for Christmas since apparently this dude is part of the Russian 'new sincerity' and I wasn't sure if that was in any way related to the American new sincerity. So he's reading it in English to see if it could work as one of the books for his exam (if he even gets into/goes to Maryland)! The other would probably be a Nabokov novel.

I loved The Good Place, and highly recommend Mindhunter!

And don't feel disheartened--it seems like this is such an unpredictable process, a rejection does not mean you aren't a stellar applicant. With such super low acceptance rates, amazing applicants are going to be rejected sometimes, for reasons we may never know!

[a_sort_of_fractious_angel]

1 hour ago, JustPoesieAlong said:

Nothing sane or healthy about how often I check my emails/the results board/this forum, but I'm not gonna pretend like that's gonna stop soon. I do make an effort to leave my phone in the opposite side of the house when I'm at home to reduce the obsessive check-ins. In the meantime, I am trying to read more--although I was silly enough to think I could get a "head start" with grad school and work on my reading list for that. After the implied rejection from Emory (since I didn't get invited to interview), I'm feeling disheartened and find I want to binge-watch TV shows instead. I'm currently finishing up The Good Place, Black Mirror, and The End of the F***ing World. I have plans to start The Crown, Dark, Mindhunter, Godless, Glow, and like 10 other shows. The End of the F***ing World is on Netflix and is definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea since it's dark comedy and pretty violent, but I'm crazy about it. I've also been playing Yoshi's Woolly World and working on jigsaw puzzles. Really living life while I wait, lol. 

^big mood. 

I have a PhD prep syllabus/thing made up but am too scared to do it - I feel like it's tempting fate in a maybe not-good way. Though maybe I should it. I don't know. Ugh.

TV is great - I just finished The End of the F***ing World and loved it and am starting The Good Place now - and I've started playing Hearthstone again. I'm not very good but it's a decent way to pass the time.

I've also been enjoying GC threads from years past  - I've decided it doesn't "count" if I'm reading old threads instead of refreshing the results screen. Some of the threads are hilarious and the shade that gets thrown around in mid-Feb during the '09/'10 years is high-quality. So, if you're needing to be on here but not wanting to be, seeking out threads with silly titles and lots of responses may be fun.

[punctilious]

@mk-8 I love your picture so much. My husband is a Star Wars nerd. It took me a while, but I am now a fan (well, a selective fan, I love A New Hope and enjoyed the recent films). Mainly I'm just in it for Luke and the porgs, though.

[FreakyFoucault]

1 hour ago, punctilious said:

well, a selective fan, I love A New Hope and enjoyed the recent films

@punctilious, don't even bother with the prequels. They're trash, everything in them is trash, and they're a compelling reason to not like Star Wars.

Actually, scratch that: Get really drunk -- gin drunk, even -- and watch them all straight through. You'll have a ball, especially with precious moments like this one: 

[punctilious]

2 minutes ago, FreakyFoucault said:

@punctilious, don't even bother with the prequels. They're trash, everything in them is trash, and they're a compelling reason to not like Star Wars.

Actually, scratch that: Get really drunk -- gin drunk, even -- and watch them all straight through. You'll have a ball, especially with precious moments like this one: 

HAHAHA. Ok so I've tried to watch them before years ago but definitely fell asleep. However, my husband has made me watch this video. It's soooo bad. But I bet he'd LOVE your suggestion.

[FreakyFoucault]

4 minutes ago, punctilious said:

But I bet he'd LOVE your suggestion.

It's something that a true Star Wars fan has to do every few years. It's the kind of cleansing that Aristotle's talking about in the Poetics. 

And you're telling me that the sand quote (dare I say, pick-up line?) wouldn't work in the real world? Maybe I need to get my dating advice elsewhere?!

[mk-8]

2 hours ago, punctilious said:

@mk-8 I love your picture so much. My husband is a Star Wars nerd. It took me a while, but I am now a fan (well, a selective fan, I love A New Hope and enjoyed the recent films). Mainly I'm just in it for Luke and the porgs, though.

Thank you! I'm a massive Star Wars fan (like, I have a Star Wars tattoo and am getting another, lol), so I'm always excited to see new fans!!! My boyfriend had not seen any of the movies when we started dating. I really think he only tolerates them for me.

33 minutes ago, FreakyFoucault said:

@punctilious, don't even bother with the prequels. They're trash, everything in them is trash, and they're a compelling reason to not like Star Wars.

Actually, scratch that: Get really drunk -- gin drunk, even -- and watch them all straight through. You'll have a ball, especially with precious moments like this one: 

When anyone tries to defend Attack of the Clones to me, I only respond "I don't like sand." It is my very very very least favorite movie- gosh I hate it so much. 

TNT (or TBS, or one of the Ts) had a Star Wars weekend when The Last Jedi came out, so I pretty much watched every Star Wars movie twice that weekend. I had always been okay with The Phantom Menace (because Darth Maul is one of my favorite villains), but gosh, rewatching it was so rough. The prequels definitely are not good movies, but still mandatory watching IMO. 

[FreakyFoucault]

9 minutes ago, mk-8 said:

I had always been okay with The Phantom Menace

So are you ready for Darth Binks in Episode 9?

[punctilious]

@mk-8 & @FreakyFoucault, here's one of my and my husband's favorites...

 

 

[FreakyFoucault]

@punctilious, as it would happen, Uncle Owen was fluent enough in Tatooinian youth culture to know that "power converters" is slang for "cheap hookers." He just didn't want Luke mixing with the wrong crowd! You do that, after all, and you'll be dead!

[punctilious]

1 hour ago, FreakyFoucault said:

@punctilious, as it would happen, Uncle Owen was fluent enough in Tatooinian youth culture to know that "power converters" is slang for "cheap hookers." He just didn't want Luke mixing with the wrong crowd! You do that, after all, and you'll be dead!

LOL. I wish I could like this, but I’m out of reactions.