Almost 2009.

So much has been going on lately that I haven't had much time to write in here. I'll just give a quick rundown of what's been up:

• Took the GRE, did well enough to be eligible for an Honors Fellowship at Ole Miss. $1,000 a semester for Master's students - awesome!
• Have an interview with the Atlanta History Center in December for the internship. Crossing fingers I can work in the archival program.
• Biked 12 miles on the Silver Comet Trail up near Rockmart with BT this past Sunday. Froze to death & couldn't walk for a couple of hours afterwards, but it felt great.
• Read Twilight just to see what it was all about and by page 250, found myself thoroughly underwhelmed. I still want to see the movie simply because I find Robert Pattison beautiful.
• Money is tight, as the economy is affecting my place of employment, resulting in hours being cut, on top of a somewhat disappointing annual raise. Applied at a couple bookstores for a part-time seasonal position, so we will see how that plays out.
• I am full-blown, head over heels in love with one of the best men I have ever met. This is what an adult relationship should be. Giving and taking equally, all with respect and love and caring. Finally. Thank you.
  

Even though it is still eight months away, I'm getting really excited for grad school. According to the graduate catalog, a sampling of courses I could take in one semester would be Great American Writers: Cormac McCarthy, Readings in US History: Civil War to Present, and a basic Studies in Southern Literature course. To some, this is torture, but to me...paradise. On top of just getting back to school, I can't wait to move to Oxford. While I will miss Atlanta a whole helluva lot, I think a new environment will be exciting & a nice change of scenery. Plus, nice apartments rent for a fraction of the cost of living in the Atl.

After doing some research, I think I am going to qualify for more financial aid than I thought. According to the Ole Miss grad school website, "Graduate students who receive a minimum of $1800 per semester as either an assistantship or fellowship are eligible for a partial tuition scholarship (75 percent of tuition for the minimum, ¼ time stipend, increasing to a 100 percent tuition scholarship for a ½ time stipend)." I don't intend on working outside of being on campus my first year there, so if I can do a 1/2 time assistantship, I can get a 100% tuition scholarship AND a somewhat generous stipend, significantly reducing how much I would need to take out in loans. I would absolutely love it if I was lucky enough to not put myself into thousands of dollars.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! I will be in Panama City with my family from Tuesday through Friday, relaxing and enjoying somewhat warmer weather (even if the tattoos will all have to be hidden).

Countdown to grad school...

I just registered for the GRE! It was my goal to take it by the end of this month, but that isn't happening. I procrastinated, as usual, and the only available October dates were sometime next week. So, I registered for a November 13th appointment at 1:00 at a GSU testing facility, leaving me exactly a month to study. I've been working through The Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE workbook all morning. So far, my verbal skills are fine, which is really no surprise. I mean, I have a degree in English; I would be pretty upset if they weren't fine. Now, my math skills are a different story. They definitely need some fine tuning. The format of the analytical writing questions seems a little tricky, so I'll have to practice those a lot as well. At least I'll have a full month to study and work through all the practice tests. It's my goal to go to the Decatur library in the afternoon for a couple of hours three times a week until test time.

On a whim last week, just to say what was out there for future post-grad jobs, I googled "Atlanta History Center, employment" and discovered they were accepting applications for interns this upcoming spring and summer. I'm going to send my application in and hope the internship I want (manuscripts assistant) is available. The description states it would expose me to "processing collections of unique, one-of-a-kind documents relating to history, including...business records, photographs, architectural collections, maps, diaries, private papers, etc..."How awesome would that be?! That is definitely the kind of thing I want to do when I get out of grad school. It's a little late in the game for me to be doing an internship, and I would still be working full-time at The Wag; it would only be for 10 weeks though, and I think I could handle that. Also, in thinking of the absolute worst case scenario, if I weren't to get into grad school for the fall, it would be great to add the AHC to my resume. The head of their internship program already gave me the A-OK to apply even though I've already graduated, so hopefully I will be given the same consideration as undergrad/grad students. The deadline is November 1st, so hopefully I'll hear back from them sometime before Christmas.

I've got one of my letters of recommendation in line already; I'm going to use Dr.Wood aka the man who got me into Southern literature. The son of a friend of my grandparents went to Ole Miss and apparently has donated a lot of money there; for a school like that (ie: lotsa good old boys as rich alumni), I think using him as my second letter will be a great asset. After the GRE, my application & statement of purpose will be the only things to assemble and turn in before the February 15th deadline. It's my mission to have everything postmarked by February 1st. It seems far away, but I know the next three months are probably going to fly by; I just want everything to go as easy and stress-free as possible. I can't believe this is really happening. Registering for the GRE just made it feel so real.

I would really appreciate it if the temperature could drop about ten degrees...