3/16 It may just be the coffee, but I started reading the preface to "Saint Joan" by George Bernard Shaw, and my heart started racing, and I was laughing. The man had some serious genius, as well as being funny as all-get-out. Woo-hah for good writing. i'll let him speak for me today:

"Does not our cry of 'Back [to an earlier age].. mean that it is no longer our Academy pictures that are intolerable, but our credulities that have not the excuse of being superstitions, our cruelties that have not the excuse of barbarism, our persecutions that have not the excuse of religious faith, our shameless substitution of successful swindlers and scoundrels and quacks for saints as objects of worship, and our deafness and blindness to the calls and visions of the inexorable power that made us, and will destroy us if we disregard it?"

"Our credulity is grosser than that of the Middle Ages, because the priest has no such direct pecuniary interest in our sins as the doctor has in our diseases....Also the medieval cleric believed that something extremely unpleasant would happen to him after death if he was unscrupulous, a belief now practically extinct among persons recieving a dogmatically materialist education. Our professional corporations are Trade Unions without souls to be damned; and they will soon drive us to remind them that they have bodies to be kicked."

Woo Hah!

3/15 Last week was possibly the worst week I have had in six years. Tuesday (the day before the GRE) I had to go to the hospital for a colposcopy and biopsy, kinda like what pamie had. That was kind painful. The doctor said I probably have nothing to worry about, and the abnormal cells on my cervix will most likely go away on their own. yeah, scram, guys. Then the aforementioned GRE excitement, compounded by the fact that with the computerized GRE you find out your score immediately and have to decide right then if you want them sent to any schools. On Friday there was interpersonal roommate tension, all discussed via the oh-so-easy-to-misunderstand-and-get-over-irate medium of email. Then Saturday night some creepy drama which I won't get into here. So glad that week is over.

The GRE's man. What a complete scam. Especially now that you basically have to take the computerized tests. One might expect that with the greater possibilities afforded by computerized information storage, the GRE would be more convenient and flexible in response to your needs. Especially as you have to pay $96 for the privilege of taking them. But no. It's all organized for the Educational Testing Service's convenience and is completely inflexible. more so now. sucks.

But now it's spring break, and I can actually get some writing done cuz all the students and most of the profs are away. I also finished my application essays, and all I have is one reference to go and I can send it all off. yipeee.

3/11 Oh dear So I took the GRE yesterday. Trekked out to the waterfront industrial park. Unfortunately (my life is a bad movie) I had eaten something which disagreed with me. So I started getting stomach cramps and sweats in the middle of the first section, then, right in the middle of the second section, I had to run to the ladies' room and throw up. Splashed my face with water, gargled, and since they couldn't stop the timer, I just ran back in and continued the exam. If it wasn't so frustrating it'd be kinda comical. The FBI couldn't have set it up sweeter. All in all, I still didn't do too bad, but not what i wanted, and I may have to re-take them in a month. Grrrrrr. Still feeling shaky today, and my co-worker said I looked "grey."