I Knew It was Summer When

….I stood in the kitchen slicing strawberries and saw from the corner of my eye a single drop of sweat fall from my face and plummet in agonizing slow motion to plop on the counter.

NOT ACCEPTABLE!!!

I could almost deal with summer heat if it weren’t for all the sweating. Gross, dammit!

How about the rest of you? Are you enjoying that wet trickle of summer running down the middle of your back yet? Goodness knows it’s making my every dream come true right at this very moment. (Gag!)

A More Complete Story

Perhaps you remember a few months ago when a series of brief posts appeared detailing my success in applying to the University of British Columbia? And then they promptly disappeared? Here’s the deal:

I had acquired a new job in the early spring that was a temp position, and quite honestly, a dream come true. Administrative work (I love filing!), a large company (blissful anonymity!), and a short contract so that I could leave Minneapolis at the end of the summer, pack up my Canadian, the dog and the cat, and hit the road for Vancouver. Alas, during a Get To Know You event with a new colleague, she just seemed SO interested in my blogging venture and I am SO interested in spreading the word about Fat, that I told her about my site and gave her my full blessing to read it, only to later realize that my grad school plans had been published but respective supervisors had no idea. Yeah, I had to move fast on that one because my talent for sticking my foot in my mouth seems to know no bounds.

It’s probably just as well that it worked out that way, because the Canadian and I were soon reworking our timeline for the great Minneapolis departure, due in no small part to a totally unpredictable tattooing apprenticeship. (Impulsive creature that I am, I am going to refrain from making any further comments about the apprenticeship itself; see my foot-in-mouth comment above.) Afterall, if the Canadian cannot be gainfully employed in his trade while I’m at grad school, then what is the point of bringing him along to pay my bills? (Kidding! Sort of….)

So here I am, a deferred grad student, waiting for my September 2011 admission. Still working two jobs, and struggling to remain hopeful in the midst of a lot of resentment. I love a sizable paycheck, and mourn the lack of time I have to myself. But I’ve got that itchy writing bug again so perhaps if you haven’t abandoned my entirely, we’ll meet up again as I drop more posts here.

And YES, as a matter of fact, I did make it out to see Twilight: Eclipse. Yummy. And as an added extra bonus, I got a new song by the totally delicious Florence+the Machine. Please enjoy “Heavy In Your Arms”:

Finally heard from UW!

My letter from the University of Washington Information School arrived in the mail today carrying news of my fate with their Masters program.

They turned me down!

I’m gonna take it as a sign from the gods. Afterall, I sent in my admission confirmation to the University of British Columbia early last week. Ahahahah! Looks like it all worked out the way it was supposed to.

Watch out, Vancouver! There’s a not-so-lean, mean librarian-to-be headed your way!

News from A Broad

Official word arrived yesterday…

I have been accepted to the dual Masters program of Archival and Library/Information Sciences at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. (No word yet from the University of Washington. Impatient toe-tapping has gotten me nowhere on that one.)

My celebration was brief because soon my brain (oh, poor beleaguered and diseased brain!) was throwing at me all manner of anxiety-inducing scenarios: study visa! moving trucks! tuition! housing! But I’m sure that piece of it isn’t surprising to anyone here. My brain just DOES THAT.

Regardless, the point is….I got in to grad school! Priority #1: obtain the perfect pair of librarian-esque spectacles.

We Interrupt This Retirement…

We interrupt this Retirement in Progress with a couple of news updates:

1. The Canadian has returned home! I drove up to Winnipeg earlier this month and brought the Canadian home. FatGrrl vs. Immigration. And the winner is….FatGrrl!

2. Grad school applications are done and submitted. FINALLY! I applied to the University of Washington and the University of British Columbia. I will now cross my fingers for as long and has hard as I can.

Such Sweet Sorrow

My butt’s been dragging lately, folks, and I see the way it is affecting my time here. This pursuit is something that more and more easily gets pushed to the side to make way for other things that are taking up my time, energy, soul, etc. It’s a bummer. And as much as I love to set ginormous goals for myself that can then set me up for failure - woohoo! self-flagellation! - I think it might be better to admit to myself that all things eventually come to an end, even the great things, and that it’s okay to say goodbye.

I’ve talked it over with Ellie, and let her know what I planned. She’s currently in an apartment without internet access - the situation is giving her hives, I’m sure - but she asked me to leave the site up and running so that she can make her imminent return to blogging.

So that’s where things stand, with my Extra-Long-Hiatus-That-Could-Be-More-Like-Retirement-But-Who-Really-Knows? It’s been a privilege meeting and bantering with you all.

Love,
FatGrrl

Tidbits

Today marks the 4th anniversary of my first post at FatGrrl.com. (Golf claps.)

I actually do want to spend a little time looking back over the past 4 years and write more about this experience, but that is going to have to come this weekend. I’m taking the GRE tomorrow and this week has just been, well, shitty. From beginning to end.

Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for me and look for more in the way of anniversary musings later this week.

Watching: A parade of math formulas and vocabulary words dance before my eyes.
Listening: To the sound of my head hitting a brick wall.
Playing: With the minds of some of my more useless tenants.

***UPDATE***

Just got back from the GRE and the verbal and math scores are in (I’ll have to wait a while for the analytical writing to be assessed). Anyway, drumroll please….

Verbal: 620/800
Math: 670/800

Not so bad, I guess. The last time I took I got just the opposite…a stronger verbal score. And Ellie will twitch when I say this, but there was not nearly enough algebra on that test. I love algebra.

Big Fat Satire

Sometimes I just wanna tuck Colbert’s head under my arm and give him some big fat noogies.

Arctic Tundra

Ellie likes to tease me about living in Minnesota…the frozen north, the Arctic tundra, etc. And it was totally funny. Until a couple of days ago when we got our first dusting of snow. Then it was still kinda of funny: “Ha! Ha! We got some snow! Look at us!” Then it got a lot less funny this morning when it snowed and snowed until just about 30 minutes ago. It just doesn’t seem appropriate to have snow before Halloween. The trees are still green, for goodness’ sake!

Sigh. What are you gonna do?

Answer: Curl up on the couch with the nearest furball, watch blank-blank-blank: Season blank on DVD (I opted for Lost: Season 2), and find something crafty to work on. I chose my ongoing series of Yoshitomo Nara cross stitch projects. Judging by Kiba’s expression today, I guess I have some more work to do:

Please Excuse our Mess

Hey, folks. I’m going to spend this weekend trying to get the google ads up and running on the site. Thanks to everyone for their input and support as I move forward with this. Of course, the top priority will be weeding out the ads that run contrary to the mission of this site, but if you happen to see one of those damn lame diet ads, leave the URL here in the comments and I will get it removed as soon as I can.

Jya!

Reading: The Outlaw Demon Wails by Kim Harrison
Watching: Lost: Season 2
Playing: Katamari Forever for PS3