This has to be one of the few "weekends" that I've taken advantage and actually gotten some things done. I did some research yesterday on NYU and filed my FAFSA application online. Today, after going to check out Air Force One and Dubya (see photos below), I finally bought some new work pants. I'm working on more school-related things this afternoon, but I'm taking a break at 6 for the Minnesota-Duke women's game. Now if I could only get my room clean, I'd be set.

This first photo is just of Air Force One sitting out on the ramp at Outagamie County Regional Airport. Thank goodness for my SIDA badge, I could step outside and snap a few photos, but I was leary of getting close, lest the sniper on the ATC tower get an itchy trigger finger.

Darn the crappy zoom on my camera! We weren't allowed outside when the motorcade returned to the airport, so a photo from the bag room door was the best I could manage. The black speck waving from the top of the steps is Dubya as he was getting back on the plane.

And finally, here's Air Force One lifting off. With so much thrust in those engines, they apparently needed only half the runway to take off.

Okay, back to work... and stuff.

Oh my god! I'm having trouble catching my breath right now. So much craziness has ensued this month, but I just received the greatest news of all. I've been frantically checking the mail every day for the last month awaiting letters to arrive. I opened up the door to the garage today and saw a packet lying in the mail box. I ran out and grabbed it and saw that it was from NYU. I just knew a packet would signal good news. I ran back inside, grabbed a letter opener, and ripped the envelope open. When I pulled out the contents and saw an acceptance letter, the only thing I could think to do was to scream at the top of my lungs. I'm in. I'm accepted to the Cinema Studies M.A. program for this fall. I'm moving to New York City! The first thing I thought to do was to grab my phone and just start calling everybody. I thought that I had been keeping my previous denial letters from my parents, but my dad told me that he actually reads my website (which I never knew), so he knew this was it. As you can probably imagine, I'll be celebrating tonight, and, of course, I'm trying to get as many of my friends as I can find to come along for the party. Tomorrow could be a rough day at work, but I'll worry about that then. I'm in!!!!!!

There's something so reassuring and refreshing about spending days off doing nothing. Actually, I've pretty much done less than nothing these last two days, if that's even possible. Well, actually, Monday was really only non-productive before 8 pm. I went to the Y at 8, and then Corey and I went bowling. After that we made the token visit to Jekyll's before going home. I should like to continue this trend of non-activity into tomorrow, but tomorrow I have to return to work.

Having received my fourth rejection letter today - this one being from Yale - at least I only have one more rejection letter yet to receive before I can move on to make different plans. I have already begun considering those plans, but the official end decision won't come until I get that letter from NYU guaranteeing that they, like the other four schools to which I applied, have rejected me. Yay.

I know he was all worried that I'd be upset and jealous, but I'm really not - I want to give Dave a shout-out and congratulations on getting accepted into his grad program at Madison. That really kicks ass. He worked hard for it and he deserves it. He and I went out tonight and celebrated. I wouldn't exactly say that we painted the town red, but we did drink a boot of Warsteiner at Old B. Mmmm... boot.

I was just checking my email and discovered that - what do you know? - I got rejected from yet another school. This time it was UCLA's turn. That's 0-3. I'm left now with my hopes pinned solely on NYU and Yale. My chances are not looking good.

I've spent a lot of time in the last 2-3 days brainstorming names for my new website. After compiling a list, I've run through the names to see which are actually available, which shrinks my list of names considerably. The part that surprises me the most is the number of domain name squatters that are still out there. Yes, 5 years ago it was quite fashionable to buy every domain name known to man and then attempt to sell them back at premium prices, but those days are long gone. I saw one website that said its domain names go for anywhere from $668 to $10,000. $10,000?! I can't imagine anyone being stupid enough to pay $668, let alone $10,000. I'd rather just come up with another name than pay those ridiculously outlandish prices. Stupid squatters.

Watching the Academy Awards last night was downright boring. No surprises. None. LOTR won every award it was nominated for, while the favorites won all the rest. I am yet to see any of the LOTR movies, but I'm now inspired to so I can find out if Return of the King's 11 Oscars fall in the Ben-Hur category or the Titanic category. I sense it's somewhere in between.