Dilemma

03.24.04

I have a huge choice on my hands right now, and I don't like it.

Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles is giving me $45,000 to attend their school. It's a scholarship that's only given to 20-25 students and is the highest honor they can award an incoming first-year student. The thing is, I have to notify them of my decision and pay a $300 tuition deposit by April 1. That's 8 days away. I have yet to hear from UCLA or USC, and I don't expect to within the next 8 days.

Con: UCLA and USC both rank in the top 20 out of all the law schools in the country. The other schools I've been accepted to so far, Loyola Chicago and Loyola LA, are both in the top 70. I'm still waiting to hear from but fully expect to get into Chicago-Kent, which is also in the top 70. Southwestern is a Tier 3 school, which means it's not in the top 100, but it's still ranked over many, many other schools.

Pro: However, the LSAC (Law School Admission Council) has a letter on their website that stongly denounces ranking systems and says to focus on factors important to you instead of numbers. This letter is signed by the deans of at least 200 law schools, including those that are ranked in the top 10.

Pro: Southwestern has sent me oodles of information about themselves in all these very-nicely made booklets that tell about things such as their alum and their faculty (many graduated from Harvard Law), and neither of the other two schools that accepted me have sent me anything other than an acceptance letter yet. Southwestern is making sure I know all about what they can offer me, and I'm very impressed by what I've seen so far.

Pro: Southwestern has the 2nd largest law library in California, which is impressive considering the state has all the UC branches and Stanford in it.

Pro: Southwestern is located on Wilshire Avenue in LA, which is a wonderful area and home of many million-dollar-plus apartments. It is close to my uncle's house, so the commute would be better than Loyola LA or USC, but probably a little farther than UCLA. They've recently expanded the campus area which they've made sure is a green area that doesn't seem like it's in the middle of the city. Most of the school itself is in the Bullocks Wilshire building, which is "one of the most admired and significant Art Deco structures in the world." The pictures are gorgeous. If I went to USC, I'd probably have to be worried about being jumped on the way to class every day. Not the case here.

Con: The scholarship won't make Southwestern any cheaper than UCLA; UCLA is a public school and with residency, will only cost me $10,000 per year. Southwestern is a private school, and is nearly $30,000 per year without the scholarship. With $15,000 per year from the scholarship, it will still be more than UCLA.

Con: My dream has been to go to UCLA. I don't know if I should pass this up for this scholarship when I don't even know if UCLA will accept me or not.

I plan on calling several people, including Southwestern's admissions office, to figure out what I should do here. Man, I liked it better when I applied to undergrad; I applied to one school, they wanted me, they offered me $2,000 a year in scholarships, I accepted no questions asked. This stuff is difficult.

And to think that I got this scholarship by filling out this tiny form included with my admissions materials that just required my name and for me to say I wanted them to review my application materials and be considered for the scholarship. I did it almost as an afterthought and figured nothing would come from it. Bah!

04:59 PM [link]

Is it that time of the month?

03.19.04

I just came across a book on Amazon.com that sounds interesting. It's called, "Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers" by Lois P. Frankel. Not only does it have good reviews and sound useful, but I really identified with one of the quotes from it: "Whether it was Mom's message -- 'Boys don't like girls who are too loud.' -- or, in response to any angry outburst, a spouse's messages -- 'What's the matter? Is it that time of month?' -- women are continually bombarded. with negative reinforcement for acting in any manner contrary to what they were taught in girlhood."

The whole "Is it that time of the month?" thing drives me mad. My asshole ex used it on me all the time. Nevermind that he had done something to piss me off, but he'd try to peg it as being my problem and not his, and I was just acting so unreasonable since I was a woman with womanly problems. Also, who cares what time of the month it is? It doesn't change how you honestly feel, it's not like I only get angry when the hormones start moving. It's good to see that I'm not the only one who's had this accusation thrown at me, but it always made my blood boil. It's totally like he was patting me on the head and saying, "Silly woman, don't worry, in a few days you'll feel all better and won't need to yell at poor, innocent me."

So to all my male readers, don't ever ask your significant other if it's "that time of the month" when she's upset. They get upset at you getting a lapdance from your 18-year-old stripper friend no matter what time of the month it is. And if it is "that time of the month," chances are if she's pissed at you, you still did something that upset her. Don't treat it as any less.

05:15 PM [link]

Back home

03.14.04

I'm back home now, the trip was short but sweet. It's always nice to catch up with family who I haven't seen in a long while. I learned a few things:

1. I need to stop touching things that have water in them and aren't mine. I'm sure my cousin breathed a sigh of relief when I left since I, more than once, came close to flooding rooms in her house.

2. Only a baby can drool, spit food all over, burp, and still be considered cute and adorable. (Actually, come to think of it, my boyfriend doesn't seem to mind too much that I act like that sometimes.) I got to feed the baby today, and he has this horrible habit of bouncing up and down just as you get the spoon halfway into his mouth so that it gets all over his face. And yet I still found him adorable. Go figure.

I got to go to a Sephora store while in Georgetown, and can I just say that I love Sephora? A whole store filled with every makeup brand you can think of, all with testers available so that you don't end up spending money on stuff that ends up looking hideous. I've recently discovered that I look good in peach tones (before I stayed far, far away from anything even remotely orangey), so I bought BeneFit's Georgia powder, which even smells like peaches. Sometimes there are benefits to being pale.

P.S.: New layout. An entire two months after I first started it. I just needed the last burst of energy to get over the tedious crap. I still need to fix the guestbook, but Megabook's website is g-o-n-e. Time to search for a new one.

12:07 AM [link]

In DC

03.12.04

My vacation just started and it's already almost over. I'm currently in DC and I get on the plane tomorrow to go back home. I've absolutely fallen in love with my cousin's baby, and I'm tempted to steal him, but I know as soon as he starts getting hungry or needing his diaper changed, I'd be sending him right back. The amount of attention and help he needs is mind boggling, and I'm quite sure that all my sorority sisters who say they can't wait to be "barefoot and pregnant" really have no idea how time consuming having a baby is. I've always said I'd want one if I could put it in the closet when I'm done playing with it, and I still stand by that.

The woman who's being charged with a fetus's death since she refused to have a c-section for cosmetic reasons is nuts. My uncle says she's ugly enough as it is and a scar wouldn't be any life-changing event for her. Apparently she says being cut from breast bone to pelvis would ruin her life, which is sooo ridiculeous, since my cousin had a c-section and her scar is so small and low, she can't even figure out how her baby came out of it. My theory is that this woman is a stripper, since she seems white trash enough, or else just missing a few (million) IQ points.

11:18 PM [link]

Freaks

03.09.04

I know I haven't updated in awhile. I haven't exactly been busy, just more of not being a slave to my computer. I think my AIM away message said "sleeping" for about three days straight.

The Ahnold Classic show on Saturday was interesting, and pretty scary. There were men walking around in spandex pants and women who were 100% fake tit and tan with muscles bigger than any woman should be allowed to have. Not only the booth people handing out free samples of only-God-knows-what's-in-it-since-the-FDA-doesn't-regulate-it crap, but the people who came to the show as well. I kept telling Will I felt like I was supposed to be showing my stomach or something. I also thanked him for not owning any shirts that were so tight they showed off his nipples. Men should not have nipply shirts.

It's really pathetic knowing that the people there wake up in the morning consumed with thoughts about their looks, go through the day making everything about their looks, and going to bed thinking about their looks. I'm not exaggerating either, I dated a guy who was all, "I hate my diet, it's so gross, I'm so sick of eating this protein and no-carb stuff every day, but I must have MUSCLES." Nevermind he looked absolutely ridiculous, even though he was never as big as he thought he was.

Come on people, there's more to life than your body. Really.

It's also very strange that these people worry so much about their bodies yet they'll ingest anything that claims to "incinerate fat and build muscle!" Since it's not regulated by the FDA, no studies are done to see what the long term effects are. Will and I were saying these people are probably going to have ruined livers and crap by the time they're 40 since no one really knows what's in this stuff. This one company that had a booth there was telling my dad and uncle that they get away with having certain things in their products by not listing them as active ingredients, even though they're quite active. Lovely. Really.

The highlight of the event was the martial arts section. It was at the far end of the convention center and filled with normal kids and families who were competing. We saw this way-awesome choreographed routine that involved breaking stacks of bricks and coconuts. I wanna break a coconut with my fist. Knowing me, I'd break my fist with the coconut.

Will's friend was moved from Ahnold bodyguard duty to Sylvester Stallone bodyguard duty since the state police took over for the now-govenor. Apparently Stallone is gracious to both fans and his bodyguards while Ahnold was a notorious asshole, and Stallone threatened to get rid of his driver if he mentioned Ahnold one more time.

02:20 AM [link]

Blockbuster sucks

03.01.04

I call for a boycott of all Blockbuster video stores. They've changed their pricing scheme so that you get to choose how many days you rent the movie for and you just get charged a flat rate per day. No late fees or anything. Sounds great, right? Well, not really. Will and I used to get older releases for less than $2.00 for an entire week. Now it's 99 cents per day for older releases. That makes it just under $7.00 for the same amount of time. Totally unacceptable. At least here at school there are other video stores to visit who hopefully are cheaper, but at home Blockbuster is the only video store that is a decent distance from my house. *sighs*

Can't decide from listening to 45-second clips of JC Chasez's new CD if I want it or not. My sister would flip if she heard me say that (NSync is EVIL, according to her. She's never explained why.)

01:29 AM [link]