Forward!

(short on time? this first paragraph is easily skippable)
Taking the GRE, or more precisely, the time gearing up to the GRE (AKA supposed study time) had a much bigger effect on me than I thought it would. Studying and not seeing great leaps and bounds in doing better on the multiple choice exams took me right back to how I felt in vet school where I worked harder than ever to do more poorly than ever before. Thankfully, the GRE is not vet school, and I was able to do fairly well on it, all said and done. But having 'Should Be Studying' hanging over my head for a couple months was not a good place to be. Because it's an integral and necessary part of moving forward, I did it, but BLECH. One of my major questions for my potential grad schools is: "How do you measure success in your program?," to which I hope the answer is, "Mostly on the success of projects that our students do, but they are also expected to write papers, and give presentations." As long as multiple choice exams are on the out and out, or at least in the minority, I'm golden.

Yeah, anyway, so... Forward! Now that I have the GRE behind me, I feel my world has just opened up so much. I am excited about delving more into researching/talking to people at the potential Environmental Management/Policy grad schools (Santa Barbara, Monterey, New Haven = locations of my top choices), I am excited about working toward a physical move to a new location, I am excited about working really hard on choreographing an ensemble piece for the Unos Bailes Por Dia De Los Muertos show with Rachel Brice (at Busters, 9pm, Oct 23rd. You should come if you're in Lexington). My job seems less stressful now that we have moved it back to within a mile of my house and I don't have to commute through rush hour traffic anymore. Ben is back in school and that has shaken our schedule up a bit (for the good, I think). I made a pair of pants for dance costuming the other night because I had *gasp* time to do so. And of course cooking, watching things on hulu and discussing them, and playing with the kitties: these all get A+'s too. OH! How could I forget...the Income Based Repayment plan (passed, with thanks, by the Obama administration during his early months in office) has allowed me to breathe and know that my (enormous) federal school loans won't eat me alive. *Blessing!*
And I sold my car (the one we stopped driving in May) yesterday to a good home. One less thing to have to worry about! Ben has gotten a new computer and he's finally pleased with all the components. It's a relief not to have to hear about that anymore (ha ha).

October is going to be a wonderful month: working on Thriller, working on the aforesaid RB show, going to a Waltz weekend with Richard Powers with Ben, and my sister is due to give birth to her second daughter! I leave halloween day to go visit for a week (I get to go trick-or-treating with Tiger, a treat indeed!). And that kicks off November which I think will be wonderful too, but I'll save all that for later.