Of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these: it might have been.

I looked up the KSTF award today. It looks pretty amazing, honestly. Basically, they pay for your teacher training (up to like $20,000/year) and give you a stipend when you're a new teacher, and connect you with tons of training tools and a small group of other super-dedicated and material-heavy teachers. They only pick like ten per year, and I checked out the ones from 2010 today, and they're all pretty seriously impressive. One of them had done Semester at Sea and mentioned it in her biography. You can sign up for it any time within five years of being granted your last degree - which means I have until 2016 to go for it. That's a lot of awesome crap I can do between now and a safe ride to being a teacher (assuming I get the award, which is seriously difficult).

I edited the write-up for my project at work today because my boss finally got back to me, but it didn't take very long at all, and so most of the day was spent (again) listening to music, This American Life, and thinking about things I needed to straighted out to get ready for Real Life and whatnot. Speaking of which, I spent a good hour getting the run-around until I was finally able to fix the way that my S.A.S. transcript was coming through to Penn State. It reported that I took Culture of Capitalism when I actually took Peoples of Africa. One course was ANTH 2559-501 and the course I took was ANTH 2559-503. Dumb choice on the part of S.A.S. but whatever. I finally got it figured out, so that was nice.

Ron, my actuary teacher, got back to me, and I was super excited! He said that he had been to Angkor Wat before and thought it was beautiful and found the people extremely gentle and welcoming and that he'd be happy to help me out with a letter of recommendation. So now I have a letter from Jim (boss) and Ron (teacher). I think I'm going to ask a friend's dad for the other letter. He's the guy that wrote the book Priceless, about his art crime recovery team in the FBI that took him all over the world. So we'll see how that goes.

I saw the same woman at the same intersection at the same time two days in a row in the last two mornings on the way to work. She goes straight across 322 from Featherbed and I turn right onto 322. There's been a car delaying us in front of her both times, then she pulls up when they leave, and I pull to her right. It was funny, and we recognized each other this morning. I wonder if that will happen again.

My dad told me that I'm playing piano too loud.

I got in a little fight again with my mom at the dinner table. She said "Jessica doesn't like the apartment," and I knew that was an exaggeration because Sam picked the apartment and my mom likes to say things that Sam does are bad. Then I was like, "Sure, okay," and she asked why I didn't believe her, so I explained why. Then she showed me the text message and basically Jessica said that it was okay, and said it was "cool and spacious." Then Mom yelled at me for saying Sam was a research assistant when he was a research teacher. "WHY IS IT OKAY FOR YOU TO BE WRONG?" Well, Mom, I was actually wrong, what you're doing is misrepresenting the truth. There's a big difference between mishearing and misspeaking.

I went to DCI tonight. I saw Alix L from PSID in the parking lot and she waved to me, but I didn't know who it was yet and I waved right back. Then I realized it was her and really wished I had given her the finger. I hate her. I saw Steve and Kyle from PSID later and I went to talk to them, and then Tollie showed up behind them and didn't say anything to me and I was just like, Wow, awkward, I'll see you guys later, and went to watch The Cadets up front with Chloe. Then I thought the show was over and went toward the door, and Alix was there again. God, so awkward. I'm so glad I'm done with PSID. I really wish that I had liked college drumline though. My life would have been significantly better. Like, significantly better. The car ride home was fun though.

Ginger has been crying a lot more than usual lately. Sometimes she just wants attention, but sometimes she wants water.

My sister is in Florida now. That's really weird. I told her to see Exit Through the Gift Shop in June. It's August and she still hasn't seen it. She told me she would when she had time. I wonder if she didn't have any time in the last two months. She didn't have a job. Oh well.

This American Life episode #400 is one of the best there is. Listening to the producers sit around and make fun of each other made me want to be their intern even more. [My cat just sneezed and it was ADORABLE] "What do you do with a canal to the moon? Especially when a car or a plane gets you there more soon?"

The guy from Dinosaur Comics is getting married soon and so he has people guest writing his comics and they suck. He's way better. I think I picked a bad time to ask him to come to a TED Talk.

According to commercials, if you buy an iPhone 4, there's a 66% chance you or your wide-eyed wife is pregnant.

Peace out.

posted by Singing Farewell 10:53 PM on Thursday, August 5, 2010