General, Late February Update

I took the day off work-work to work on my thesis and decided it's time to provide a long overdue update. The past few weeks have been insanely busy with work and teaching, and the thesis is moving along swimmingly. My weekends are generally chewed up by my thesis and then having a fun day with friends. Olympics have consumed what little spare time I have outside of all that. Generally, I'm chipper.

Even so, the last few weeks have been long, hard weeks of reflection.

Two weeks ago I pestered (in my own way) Syracuse into letting me know my status regarding the e-mail I received. The news was the opposite of what I wanted. I wasn't on their initial list of interviewees, but they would inform me if anything changed between then and now. Judging by the lack of posts in this blog, I think anyone can assert that I didn't get the inform I wanted. Today, I woulda, coulda, shoulda been snowed in at some hotel in Syracuse waiting for an interview. Instead, I'm at home, working on my thesis, wishing I could go to Orlando to check out the Manchester Orchestra/The Features show. C'est la vie.

The unofficial rejection, of course, threw a whole bunch of stuff into light for me. School and personal matters aside, I spent a week licking my wounds, prematurely making the decision that I just didn't want to go anywhere. I wanted to try getting into Syracuse again next year. Until then I'd just remain at USF building my supposed professional experience. The Week of Sulking passed, I stopped hoping for thin envelopes, and I got some potentially good news from another university.

Hope, my friends, is restored.

I won't say anything about the news 'cause now I'm paranoid and returning to my superstitious hockey roots. But I will say that a school is interested in me, it's a really good school, and I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to go there if accepted.

And really, that's what the last two weeks have boiled down to: Come hell or high water, I am bound and determined to start a Ph.D. program in the fall. I've been on the fence about the whole thing only because I feel like August 2010 will arrive too soon, but August 2011 is too far away. Now, not so much. I started reacquainting myself with the schools I applied to (mostly to take off the Syracuse-colored glasses I had stapled to my face) and I am excited about getting started. For the first time I wasted took time to look at apartments and the area around the school that has expressed interest in me. Frankly, I'm so excited I can barely contain myself. I'm trying to remain grounded, but keeping me unexcited is like trying to contain a squirrel on leftover Starbucks. (I've seen it. It's scary.)

Add on how genuinely, utterly HAPPY I am working on my thesis... really... "happy" and "thesis" just appeared in the same sentence. I know I'm not made for the constrained 8:30-5:30 job I have, and I know that what really makes me happy is learning and researching and thinking about all of it constructively. I'm a nerd, and I'm OK with that.

So, fingers crossed. Hopefully I'll have more details sooner rather than later.

Peace out, and GO TEAM CANADA!! (Yeah, I did it.)

- Mel(li) :)