Major life decisions made easy.

I finally heard back from Duke and I did not get in there either. That sure makes my decision easy! UT it is. Especially because they have decided to give me some money. I'm excited. I think of all the programs to which I applied, with the possible exception of UCLA, UT has the best program for what I want to do.

Here are some fun little facts about how far away from home I am going:

Distance between Austin, Texas and Reno, Nevada
2251.115 kilometers; 1398.778 miles

Distance between Austin, Texas and Havana, Cuba
1718.924 kilometers; 1068.090 miles

Distance between Austin, Texas and Tegucigalpa, Honduras
2084.967 kilometers; 1295.539 miles

I have never lived outside of the greater Reno area, with the possible exception of the study abroad trip to Ireland, but I don't think I was technically living there. This is exciting! Also, scary. Of all the states I thought I would ever move to, Texas was certainly not among them.

Also, I just found out I'm getting the Dean's Award for Outstanding Graduate for the School of the Arts. Pretty neat. All this sudden recognition is pretty cool, but it's honestly making me a little uncomfortable.

Home Means Nevada, part 3.

So, my beloved state of Nevada is experiencing a pretty intense financial crisis, like pretty much everyone these days. However, some brilliant folks are thinking up some new ways to increase revenue. I'm too lazy to summarize, so just read this. Personally, I think taxing prostitution is a pretty sweet idea. Our lipless, psychotic governor disagrees. Hell, he doesn't even think prostitution should be legal. Eh. What does he know.

On a sort of unrelated note, Vince the ShamWow/SlapChop guy, has been arrested for felony battery after an altercation with a prostitute in his ritzy hotel. The Smoking Gun is more eloquent than I am. Check out his mugshot! He looks like a white, very un-sexy Benicio del Toro.

This was almost as good as the biker brawl in the Sydney airport last week.

grumble.

More good news from UT. They're giving me in-state tuition plus $6000/year. So, that means instead of paying around $20,000/year I'll be paying $3000. Cheap!

My computer died last night, which is really devastating for me. The hard drive completely crapped out, which is unfortunate because I never backed anything up, because I'm an idiot. Mostly I'm upset about having lost around 3 years worth of pictures. Most of them I won't miss, but many I will. I called my mom as soon as I left the Apple store, and she consoled me by telling me that her uncle accidentally threw away the 17 rolls of film she took when living in Holland for a year in high school. She says she still gets upset about it, but it's not the end of the world. I figure it's just a good exercise in letting things go. People are too attached to objects, anyway.

Hopefully the hard drive will be replaced by tomorrow, but I have to pay $300 because my computer is kind of old and not even close to still being under warranty.

I just got back from a week in Olympia. I would like to show people my pictures, but oh wait I can't.

Giftschisser.

More news from the grad school front. I've been wait-listed at Duke and rejected from the University of Michigan. However, I find myself not really upset by any of this news, especially because I think UT will be a really good fit for me. Now I just need to figure out how to pay for this whole grad school thing. I must say all these rejections (and the one waiting list) have made my decision very easy. Furthermore, I'm really delighted that the one school I did get into is a really good one.

I'm very excited for graduation now, because my grandmother is buying me a ticket to Germany as a graduation present. I will probably head up to Holland as well, because my family has a lot of friends there. This also potentially frees up some cash for me to take another trip this summer before I move down to Austin. But where to?

I might also have a new tattoo in the works. I'm very excited! I have this random alto clarinet in my closet and I think I'm going to try to sell it for tattoo money, because what the heck am I even doing with an alto clarinet in the first place?

Good news, part 2.

I have more good news! In the last letter I received from UT, it said that I had been accepted to the musicology program. Today I got a letter saying that I have been accepted to the graduate school. I had already been celebrating the fact that I'd gotten it, but I was still a teeny bit concerned. Not anymore, though! Although I don't know what my other options are yet, I'm still leaning pretty strongly toward Texas right now.

I also got a letter from my university saying that I'm the top graduating senior in the College of Liberal Arts and that I get some kind of award for that. I'm so surprised! Maybe it's just a lean year for liberal arts graduates. Nevertheless, I am very surprised because I spent so much of college not really trying that hard. There is some kind of function that I must attend now. I'm supposed to invite the faculty member who has been most influential on me. I think I'll ask Louis, but I feel like I should maybe ask Christy. It's hard because I'm so close with both of them. I'm also supposed to "say a few words" upon receiving this award. What the heck am I going to say? Anyway, I'm very excited about this because the College of Liberal Arts is rather huge so I must be better than a lot of people, and not all of them can be total losers.

yesssss

Good news, everyone!

I accepted to the musicology program at the University of Texas! Although I am wary of moving to Texas, I don't think Austin actually qualifies as a part of Texas. I told my musicology professor yesterday and I think he was even more excited than I am. Though I still have yet to hear from Duke or the University of Michigan, Louis says that he would pick UT over either of them. He also said that UT is pretty good about giving TA positions, so hopefully I can snag me one o' them. They want my response by mid-March which seems ridiculous, but I have until mid-April if I take that long to decide. My concern is that doesn't really give me time to go check out the school (especially because I already have plans to go to Olympia for spring break) so I might end up going to a school I've never a seen in a town I've never been to in a state I've never been to.

I had not really expected to get into UT because not only was I not certain that they had received my reference letters and GRE scores, but I really threw my personal statement together and sent in my supplemental materials after the deadline. Nevertheless, they still accepted me, and I am quite delighted.

Baby skull update:
I talked to my sister who is in med school here and she tells me that the creepy baby skull and the collection of forceps are now in the anatomy lab. I'm glad they found a new home, even if I no longer get to see them every day when I come to work.

Missing: baby skull

I work in a medical library. There is a large display case outside out front doors which, in addition to displaying a few books from our collection, up until recently contained a large variety of forceps, some dating back some time. However, a noticed a few shifts ago that they had all disappeared! Furthermore, there was this creepy baby skull included as part of the display, and it is now gone as well. I really thought the baby skull did a lot for the display. It produced, for me anyway, mental images of having one of the large pairs of tongs from the display shoved up a woman's vag and yanking a baby out by its head. If that's not an entertaining mental image, I don't know what it. I'm sad and distraught that now when I come to work I am no longer greeted by a tiny yellowish-gray
skull and a collection of metal instruments that, while funny to picture having them shoved into someone else's body, can just stay the hell out of mine. I feel so alone.