The good, the bad, and the itchy

So I think I'm going to summarize the goings-on of the past couple days (mostly today) using this simple value scheme.

Good. I'm about to turn in my application for the NSF predoctoral fellowship! This is a super prestigious, super good funding opportunity. It'll pay for 3 years of grad school, and UC Davis will match it for a fourth. So if I get it, and if I finish in 5 years like I'm supposed to, I may not have to worry about funding again! At least, not grad student funding... Then will come grants and the like =P. I have a pretty solid application too, I think. A good proposal, which is probably the most important part. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from my advisor and various professors at Stanford. If I don't get the fellowship, it'll probably be because I'm white and not under-priviledged (at least, that's what I'll tell myself)... Oh well. I guess I can't complain. At least, not about the under-priviledged part...

Good. I totally like my advisor. We had our first actual intellectual conversation last week, over my NSF proposal of course. It went well. And she had good things to say about the 4 (FOUR!) statements I had to write for the application. She's so great. One of them mentioned ballet, so she told me that she had no idea I was into ballet and that I should join this group in her neighborhood =). It was cute. Maybe I'll ask her about it when she gets back from Colorado.

Bad. Continuing on with this whole NSF binge... Two of the professors I asked to write recommendations for me still haven't gotten back to me... I'm a little nervous. But I'm sure it'll all be fine and I'm just being paranoid, like I tend to be...

Good. I got two of my assignments from my week of death back today. I did pretty well! Got an A on both. I'm happy. This is a good sign for me maintaining funding... They require that you get a 3.5 GPA for fellowships. Guess they don't want to pay for just anyone to go to school... According to the summary statistics posted online, I got the highest grade on the GIS midterm too. Hey hey! Not a bad way to start out at a new school. I certainly didn't get the highest grade on my first midterm at Stanford...

Bad. Stupid-rassafrassing class. It just had a paper due last Monday, and there's another one that's bigger and harder due in a week! So not right. So cruel and unusual. And bad me too, for not working on it much yet today. But I physically could not. The mere thought of it made me feel stressed and ill (suuure). So I had to chill and spend my free time on campus reading a fun book. And I got two new green pens!! Yay. They're a weakness of mine =).

Itchy. It was just too good to be true. There was absolutely no way I could avoid getting poison oak after associating with it so intimately on Saturday... I'd made it three days without it showing up though! That's pretty good... And it's totally not bad now even. Just two little splotches of it on my arm. Just like mosquito bites. Now I just have to be really careful to avoid peanuts and mango. That's how it got bad when I had it two times ago. It'd just been little splotches, and I'd thought it was mosquito bites. And then Chad gave me mango salsa and it erupted all over my tummy. Bad Chad, bad. He still doesn't think it was his fault I had poison oak. Clearly it was!

OK, so that's pretty much all I can think of to fill the good, bad, and itchy categories for now... Over and out! I've got to submit that app!