23 days...

That's right, folks, I'm really going. Come hell and high water, makes no difference-- so long as planes can still take off and land, that is. I'm still not sure how I feel about all of this. I'm trying to add up all the expenses right now, and it looks like it's going to be just about as expensive as OB, just in slightly different ways. The main concern at the moment is the cash-flow issue between my departure time and the point where my loans come through and I get my excess aid check. Yeah, that might hurt a bit. It looks like I'm going to have about $150 to travel with-- not exactly flush, I know. But I'll be able to work through it, right? Until I get a job on-campus, right?

I've got the accommodation application and now I'm awaiting the arrival of my joining papers so I can get my official ID number to apply for housing. Everybody cross your collective fingers that I somehow get a place at Elphinstone Road. I really can't afford and do not want catered accommodation... and they say that money can't buy happiness, but it can buy an en-suite room and that's basically the same thing.

I'm waiting on the IRS to send me my tax transcript so I can finish filing my FAFSA and get the ball rolling there. They said that it wouldn't be an issue to arrive before all my funding goes through, so that's a good sign. I'm draining my meager savings to come up with the utility fees and deposit monies for the housing, but hopefully that will get me over the initial hurdles.

Despite the very good advice of some wonderfully wise friends, I'm taking my old columbia coat from LakeState, the same tennis shoes I've always had, a pair of rubber boots from the attic and as many sweaters that I already own as possible. I will get one more pair of jeans and MAYBE a heavy pair of khakis, but that's it. If I don't already have it, I'm not buying it. Oh, except for power adapters and a new battery for my laptop. THOSE things I do need. As far as a cell phone for once I'm over there, that will have to wait for the excess aid. All I can do is all I can do.

Cheers for CB, who has withstood the weight of my ignorance, my billions of questions and even sent me a book of current Scots phrases. My personal favorite so far is 'carfuffle', which means to cause an outcry or rukus.

I'll keep posting the winners as I discover them!

Scotland update: 29 days?

The devil is not only in the details, but also my stomache acid. I'm having regular anxiety attacks at 7:00 pm each day and have been unable to keep down solid food since learning that I've been accepted. I'm on one hell of a roll.

Also, I got another e-mail today from Dr. King, this one telling me for sure that I've been accepted, but I'm not one of her new pets-- she in charge of the Lit major, but I'm in the MLitt in Comparative Literature and Thought. I'm not quite sure what that means, other than that somebody else will be contacting me. Fun, fun.

I'm attempting to fill out my FAFSA, but in the mad move home from the undergrad, I have NO IDEA where the copies of my tax returns went. I don't even know if I made copies. I'm an idiot. Here's to hoping I can call the IRS and they'll actually help me. Somehow I think that's kind of a long shot.

I e-mailed both the accomodation office and the register's (financial aid) in the hopes that I will hear back from them tomorrow. I really want to get my loans squared away as soon as possible. Then I get to buy some plane tickets. But before I do that, I need to know when I can move in. Ahh, so many little steps. Damnit. And I'm broke.

Regarding my previous post freak out about the MSF, I talked to my boss, and maybe there's hope. some hope. Something about breaking up the job that I've got right now into 3 seperate positions and maybe making me the company manager... more on this at a later point. Like when I'm not tired.

DAMNIT. I can't find the sheet of paper I wrote the phone numbers on for U of Aberdeen housing. Maybe it's in my purse. Damn missing paperwork and my inability to organize!

Go Go Gadget Scotland!

I've been accepted into the MLitt Program at the University of Aberdeen.

... I think.

I got an e-mail from a Dr. King tellimg me that she's looking forward to meeting me, giving me the correct start dates for the fall semester (apparently the ones in the letter of acceptance are wrong *question mark*) and telling me that she's looking forward to meeting me. That means that they want me, right? right??

And for some unbelievable reason that I cannot begin to plomb, I have the worst sinking feeling in the pit of my stomache.

Is it because the dates are so much different? I'll need to be there by September 15 instead of the 1st of October, and it runs into the first week of June. THE FIRST WEEK OF JUNE. This means that I won't be able to come back and work here at the MSF next summer. I never thought I would be this bummed about this, but I've finally made a new friend who may be coming back here and... but the longer I think about it, maybe that's not it.

Maybe I've just grown so accustomed to working here, to knowing everything, to being the go-to girl that, despite complaining about it constantly and claiming to despise it, I actually love it.

Oh, god.

All of the shit. The horrible hours. The never sleeping. The living off of fast food sold in Vandertucky. The ridiculous actors. The nights of drinking cheap beer with equally miserable techies. The constant crisis mode. The twitching. I love it all, don't I? When did this happen? This isn't healthy at all.

Perhaps this sinking feeling also arises out of the realization of a long-fanciful dream. I've talked about going to Scotland for Grad School for SO LONG NOW that the idea of actually going in a FOUR WEEKS is ungodly unsettling. I am actually capable of this or is this another instance of me buying into my own hype? Holy shit, the time has come...

And I don't really even know where to begin. I've got my visa, but I applied for it with my acceptance to Oxford-Brookes-- do I need to revise that? (I'll write more about my charmed life and a magical trip to Chicago a little later on, maybe tomorrow.) I just got off the phone with the Dept. of Ed. folks, and they totally lend to people studying at Aberdeen, so I need to get a hold of the people at Aberdeen's Financial Aid office and see what we can sort out. Regardless, I'm not going to have to take out as much as I would if I were to go to OB. Somehow, that doesn't make me feel that much better. I'm not even entirely sure what the name of my program is-- it's an MLitt in English Studies, but I think the actual specific designation is something about comparative thought. I think. And I need my application number to eRegister like they've asked me to do, but I don't have it yet. AHHH!

Another gut-wrench comes from the realization that I've built Scotland up so much in my head, wanted to go so badly for so long, that now I'm dearly afraid that the North Atlantic won't be as cold and blue as it is in my dreams.

I'm scared to death.

Tagged

Got tagged by CB (quite some time ago now) to do this charming little meme. Sorry it's taken me so long, but such is life.So here are 8 things about me you, my darling imaginary reader, probably didn't already know:

1. I was born in a house in southern Michigan with a dirt foundation and no insulation.

2. My favorite translation of Homer is by Richard Lattimore. The Lattimore texts were also the first I ever read of the ancient greeks-- I was in the fifth grade.

3. I have a distinct aversion to Busch Light, all stemming from one very unfortunate night my freshman year of college.

4. I didn't have a cell phone until 3 days ago.

5. My mother made snapping turtle soup and served it at my high school graduation open house.

6. I always eat new england clam chowder and ritz crackers on the morning of the first snow.

7. I own two tobacco pipes, but only use one of them.

8. I still blush when I go to the movies and people kiss on screen.


In regards to tagging, I think that's a little pointless.