week one: harry potter and the sorcerer's stone

summer has officially begun.

in addition to that, i have vowed to read at least one book a week for the entire summer, which i started with the re-reading of the first harry potter book. i have decided to re-read all six books before the final installment of what is easily my favorite book series of all time. i finished it yesterday at the park, and now i'm reading jane austin's 'pride and prejudice'. i'm trying to alternate harry potter with other new reads.

so, this week has been frought with anxiety. first, i had to wait on my grades from the second semester from hell. i was petrified that this was the semester that i was going to have to explain away to my parents and work extra hard in the fall to make up my gpa. i really did. i'm never that kid who always does well and fears doom every year. most semesters (since elementary school), i'm confident that i did my best, or that i knew i screwed up already. well, when your independent honors project doesn't go quite as you expected it to, you're bound to have some worries. well, i did fine. in fact, and yes i'm going to brag, this was my best semester (grade wise) so far at la salle. four pure A's and a B+ (from leibiger). i now have a gpa of 3.62. woo. and phew.

with that, my mother reminded me, i should be looking at the requirements for grad school and start getting ready for that, if it's really what i want to do. i went in with full confidence. a year long project that i got an A in, good grades, honors program, leadership, involvement, etc. i look better on paper than i did in high school, with the exception of grades and test scores (i haven't taken the tests yet). i went on google and just typed in "american studies graduate programs". i clicked on george washington university and went into the home page for american studies graduate programs (probably museum studies or american material culture) with full confidence that they would beg me to go there.

*SLAP*

well. suddenly it occured to me that i would have to apply. and that there are other people applying. and i would have to pay for all this. and i would be doing 2 more years of papers and classes and all the things that this semester made me hate. so i clicked the red circle at the top of the page (i have a mac) and went to bed. a restless night with lots of clockwatching and infomercial viewing. after the most relaxing day of the year so far, i was brought back into stress mode in a rude way. i worry that stress will never go away and that this obnoxious eye twitch i've had since december will just become a "charming" little quark that my future acquaintances will have to politely ignore. not only do i have to apply for grad school, but i also have all the things in the masque that i want to do. loads of records keeping, better communication with the alumni, and some other stuff.

ugh. i think someone up there enjoys watching me have a meltdown everyonce in a while.

back to ar&r work. somehow, this relaxes me.

i'm peachy...