Wait, what vacation?

So it's been Thanksgiving break, thank goodness. Though it really hasn't been much of a break, except, well, Thanksgiving. But I already blogged about monsterous amounts of food, here's the past 2 days...
Friday:
I got up by like 9 AM (yes, naturally, and mostly on my own). I tutored at 10 and got home by 11. I know, I felt bad for my tutoree, but he actually concentrated pretty well and I was able to show him some cool math stuff. I was rather impressed. AND he got a 90 on his last math test. I win!
So then my mom and I went over to Burlington Studios to pick out senior pictures and order them for Christmas and stuff. Whatever. I'm not sure why people want pictures of me, but apparently they should...
And then we went to the windshield replacement place and my parents went over 2 hours later to drop off the car... well whatever, it's unimportant.
And then I came home and worked on college apps. I got my Johns Hopkins and Peabody apps done. And then the mouse broke. The left click wouldn't work, we rebooted and it still didn't work, so we got a new mouse. And presto chango, IT WORKED. And my panic attack was gone.
I got my USC app done last night and almost all of my Thornton (the music school) done. This is all very good because it is due December 1st... :) So now I'm 6/9ths of the way done. Only 3 more! (Cornell, Caltech, and Northwestern)
Saturday:
So I got up at 9 again, this time with some persuasion. I ate breakfast, got ready, and went to the post office at 11:30ish to mail off my Peabody app. That's what I dislike about music places. Most are pretty low tech, so you can't do stuff by email. Oh well, I'll survive. I decided to hang around the area, since the physics reunion was at 12:30. I went to Marshall's then met a group of awesome people and talked and chilled and stuff and Bruggers. It was pretty solid. Except Nipunn was barfing instead, which is indeed tragic. Well, c'est la vie...
I got home and my parents decided we needed to get tires on my mom's car and that my dad needed to get new glasses and that I needed to accompany all this craziness. I guarantee I was not such a fan. But I went along and got a walk through the mall and a Trader Joe's run out of it. I suppose Peppermint Joe-Joe's and looking at semi-dresses is an adequate reward. I guess.
So about semi. My mom is volunteering to take me to Joanne's fabric, let me choose a pattern and fabric and make me a dress. I'm alternately saying yes and no. I haven't really had anything custom made for me before, but I'm scared she'll make it what she wants instead of what I want. So I really don't know. And I don't really have a solid vision of what exactly I want.
Well, let's finish the last 3 apps, then decide. And another physics reunion will happen in December, minus Sowmya and plus Marissa and Nipunn :)!

Things I'm thankful for

Mmm, Thanksgiving. So I guess rather than wasting time talking about what's up, I'll do a list of things I'm thankful for:
1. Amy Campbell telling me that "Your application is in review so you should have an answer very shortly about admissions!!!!! :)" YAY! Especially the smiley face and the five exclamation points. I was also invited to the Engineer of the Year ceremony during February vacation with my parents free of travel costs!
2. Mrs. Kurzman giving a reasonable test
3. Last year's seniors being home
4. All my friends
5. My parents
6. Mr. Berlino being the chillest English teacher ever.
7. Being 2/3rds done with college apps by Monday
8. Food
9. Still getting an all-state rec after a pretty bad district audition
10. GBYSO for giving me awesome subjects for college essays
11. Being almost done with college essays
12. Loving when I'm not loved back
13. Safety schools that I like
14. The mentorship experience
15. My bassoon
16. Not taking a real math class
17. Blogging
18. Being a senior
19. Being so tired I'm giddy
20. Life
21. Things like this: http://www.creationmuseum.org/ because dinosaurs and Adam and Eve definitely lived at the same time...

umm, back to being a bad blogger... sowwy

So yes, I know I said I'd finish my Wash U. post on Thursday. Maybe Friday. And ya know? It's Thursday. (of the next week... :))
So day 2 of Wash U. (which is better than the day 1)
I got up wayyy too early (7 am is so early... hmm, college time). I went to a wind quintet with the music director, who talked to he afterwards. The group wasn't amazing, but I think he really would have prefered for me to have come a different day. But it was cool.
I then went back to the dorm and my host was just waking up. I finished packing up my stuff :'(. As I walked over to admissions, I met this guy who started talking to me. He was a student at Wash U. and relieved a ton of my worries about the school (mostly involving drinking). He was a really nice guy. Admissions agreed to hold my suitcase for the day, I grabbed coffee (and found out I still had a lot of money on my card), and went to the information session. It is really bizarre to go to an info session without your parents... I never realized how much those things catered to parents. And then the typical tour. I went and got lunch, had my interview, and then wandered around campus a bit more. I saw the deer again (she's so cute...), and took pictures. I went to the library, looked around. It's really nice how new a lot of the buildings are, but yet they aren't unlived in. I headed back to admissions, called my taxi, and went off to the airport. I connected through Detroit and got home around 11. And then school on Wednesday...

I'm deliriously happy

So it's been the weirdest past 3 days. But yet also some of the best...
So Monday and Tuesday I was in St. Louis visiting Washington University in St. Louis (Wash U. or WUSTL). It was a ton of fun. Let's start with:
MONDAY!
So I got to miss school. And it was exempt. And I didn't have to pay for the trip. It was good (QED). So I had to get up at 3:30 PM; that was painful. And I quickly finished packing and showered and we were headed to the airport at 4:30. I got there at like 5 and we left at 6ish. I got coffee and a muffin and I was off to Memphis. Memphis was sooo southern. It was crazy. I walked onto that thing that connects the terminal with the plane and BAM it smelled like BBQ. And it smelled good. So then I ran over to the next flight to St. Louis and I got there by 11ish CST. I was already pooped. So then I took my prepaid cab ride to Wash U., checked in, dropped off my stuff, and started to explore. First thing I saw... A DEER. In the middle of Brookings Quad. It was amazing. And the campus is gorgeous. So I wandered for a while, found the DUC and ate. And then I went to a Calc II class (SERIES). It brought me right back to Huff's class which was awesome. So then I found my host and she took my luggage and I went to an engineering info session and tour. The engineering program at Wash U. is pretty awesome because it leaves a ton of flexibility, so I could take lots of music and stuff. And the facilities are nice and they're adding on a lot. Tis exciting. So then I met with my host and I got to see my room. It was nice, not amazing, but not horrible. My host needed to study for her Calc II test, so I hung out with another prefrosh (Lindsay) and her host before we went to dinner. Dinner was a chicken quesadilla which was fantastic. And then our hosts went to study and Lindsay and I went to this cafe place and talked and chilled and drank good hot chocolate. Around 10, we went back to the dorm with our hosts and got ready for bed and talked to more people. Bed at midnight.
I'll finish this later...
But in more exciting news, I GOT INTO ALL-EASTERN!!!

WUSTL!!!!

Okay, so I have my free WUSTL visit tomorrow and I am more than excited. I mean, I miss school, go to a college that I really like, and have interviews and tours and information sessions galors! What else is there to life? Unfortunately, I have to leave the house at 4:20 tomorrow morning.
And I swear I will blog about this. Probably not Tuesday night. But definitely by Wednesday.
Well anyways, today I had GBYSO. I admit, it's really frustrating to play a piece when everyone around you is just trying to learn it. However, it is also nice because MM actually sees that you know what you're doing. Oh yes... fun stuff. Other than that, it was a messy day. I also wrote my Drexel essay this morning (well I added to my UIUC essay...) and it is in decent shape. That'll be submitted fairly soon...

Wasting time...

So I submitted my WUSTL application. Yes, it's like 2 months early. And yes, I did it instead of doing one due on December 1st. But I didn't procrastinate. Then why is the title of this post "Wasting time..."? Well, because that's what I've been doing since. For example, here's my new wordle:

http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/300527/Blag

It's pretty awesome. Now which binder should it go on? I'm thinking chem...

BAAABBBBBBBB...

cock...
So it's been a sweet week. Very chill, especially after college apps. A few tests, but nothing awful. What else is there to say? I've started the next round of college apps (WUSTL, Drexel, JHU/Peabody, and maybe URochester/Eastman). I can't really decide whether or not I want to apply to U. Rochester. I mean, it has Eastman, but the engineering is pretty... not great. I'm not sure, it'll probably be based on time. And it's an expensive app. So we'll see.
So math team (I guess that's the most exciting news of the week): CHRISTIE GOT AN 18!!!!! And Bedford won. Again. I know... big surprise. BUT... we did it without McGowan's hand signals. Well Youngyi got a 14, Shreyas and I got 12s, and it went down from there. We got a 9 in team. And we got a 0 on round 3. Yes, a zero. For a whole round. Ugh, sophomores. But whatever, the winning streak continues. Though I admit, Christie, Shreyas, and I sit in a corner and lament; so no worries, we miss you guys!
Toodles!

The Calm after the Storm

So it turns out my Caltech essay didn't get written. I'm not the type of person that has anything decent written in a first or second draft. For example, my common app essay currently has 7 drafts and I think I'm happy with it. Though I expect I'll reread it and hate it. It's really frustrating. So I got partially through a rough draft, but it was unorganized and messy and I didn't have enough time to get it all together. So I didn't submit it. It'll get done by January 2nd. Probably sooner rather than later.
So life has calmed down a lot. Griff is still assigning a boatload of stuff, but it's not hard so I can deal. I had my last chem test of first term, which was easy, but because of the time limit was tough. I only had to guess on 3, which is less than I heard other people talking about. But the best part of the last few days was ROBERT PINSKY.
Okay, so Mr. Berlino got Mr. Pinsky to come in and talk to us. He's the former U.S. Poet Laureate and also translated Dante's Inferno. And on top of that he's really entertaining and insightful. I think I would actually enjoying taking a poetry class with him (he teaches at BU, so that's not going to happen). We were there for two hours and he was really engaging. Anyways, I really appreciate what he said. Read some of his poems. They're really sick.
And best of all (at least for the next 4 years) OBAMA IS THE PRESIDENT ELECT!!!!!! WOOHOO! (even though I can't vote). And the ballot questions went the way I wanted them to. Yes, I am part of the majority. Yes, I like it.

It's a crazy crazy crazy world

So I'm not going to go through this day by day. Because it's been nuts. But rather boring. But nuts all the same.
I've done 3 humanities essays, 4 college essays (and I still have one more to do... yikes), and countless hours in front of a computer screen.
I submitted my MIT app on the 27th and my U Illinois app today. Both are EA or a priority deadline, so I should find out in December. Until then I cross fingers.
What else? I haven't practiced in a long time, which is just bad, but I haven't gone to bed before 12 in the same amount of time. Things will chill out by Monday when my Caltech app is due. I'm going to try to get it in by Monday. Otherwise, it'll just be a RD app, but I'd rather just be done with it. Though it is a painfully long app. Not Stanford, but more annoying.
Let's see... we reached the quarter point in the year: 41/164. Friday was 43/164.
I had my first math test on Thursday. I hadn't been on top of doing math so the week before was a cram fest, but I learned everything. I think I did okay on the test, but we'll see. *crossing fingers*
So life is a very mixed bag. I have GBYSO tomorrow which is always good. And I really should go to bed soon and try to get stuff done tomorrow (like a caltech essay... ugh). Anyone that reads this: How in fact do I show an interest in math or science? I think I'm going to do my essay as a group of little things I do (like count measures of rest in binary, math team, Drexel mentorship) and show how the little things will eventually become one thing. At least that's currently my thought process, but it could change in the next couple days.
Ugh, so tired. Night!