Back To It, Whatever The Hell IT is.

Clearly a lot of time has passed since I last wrote to you. This was due to the fact that I just SHUT DOWN for about 3-4 weeks. I turned off my laptop and cellphone and let what hell come as may.

Hoooooo-Nelly! Did it ever come. And it's name is PhD year 1.

What kind of world do we live in where a scholarship application is due on the first day of class? And what kind of world do we live in where one's supervisor can submit your reference letter to said scholarship application's website 11.5 hours AFTER you asked her to get it in because you knew ahead of time that you wouldn't have time to work on the website's formatting because you were running a mini-conference on that aforementioned first day of school?

I ask you.

I'll tell you what kind of world it is. It's a world wherein all of your classmates and colleagues have annoying up-speak accents or valleygirl-vegan patois. It's a world wherein giggling and saying, "Whoops! I'm so stupid!" when you make a totally idiotic mistake eases your professors' insecurities that you are somehow going to overshadow them. It is a world wherein you have to pay up to $20 a day to park on fucking campus. THAT is what kind of freakin' world it is!

I've been back to school for less than four days and have already clocked one major panic attack (see scholarship application, above). The rock garden has reinstated itself between my shoulder blades, and I'm considering deliberately cultivating alcoholism.

Maybe I just have to get used to the water temperature... because it's not the heat that'll kill you, it's the stupidity.