2 posts tagged “graduate school”
Had a couple of those unexpected little life lemons recently.
The water heater went out in my house last week. I've been suspicious of it for a while because I ran out of hot water when showering and it's just me in the house. I even had the thermostats cranked waaaaayyyy up to try and make it last longer which worked a little, but I still ran out. That sucks when it's freezing outside. Brrrrrrrrr...
So, that little adventure cost $575 - $300 for the new tank and $275 in labor for the emergency plumbing services. We had to turn the water off to the whole house because the knob to shut it off just to the tank was frozen shut, so we had no water for a while. We were carrying buckets over from the neighbor's house to flush the toilets and bought out the whole supply of gallons of bottled water from the neighborhood convenience store. lol...
Tuesday night I got a flat tire - like all the way down flat. Grumble grumble... Of course I was an hour from home. Grumble grumble... One positive note - Fix-A-Flat is the BEST STUFF EVER. Go out right now and buy a can to keep in your trunk. It is a miracle product. A lifesaver. Absolutely amazing.
So took the car in to get that tire fixed and found out it couldn't be because there was too much wear. It was a 30,000 mile tire and I got 50,000 miles out of it so I'm not complaining. But my car is all-wheel drive and you have to replace all four tires at the same time or it messes up the computer that controls the all-wheel drive stuff. AND... while they were poking around in there they also noticed that my rear brakes were worn basically down and needed to be replaced too. Ha. Of course.
So $100 for one tire turned into $450 for tires and $150 brake pads leading to $620 with tax.
Sigh...
Me poor. Me no want pay lots of money. Me want save for future.
The silver lining is that I won't have to pay for these repairs when I am in school for the next three years making next to nothing. I'd rather pay for this kind of thing now then face it when I'm REALLY poor. And I do have to say I take pride in the quality of house that some lucky person is going to buy. It's a nice house with lots and lots of quality improvements. That makes me happy.
But... then I read my horoscope for today and realized everything is going to be ok. Read and marvel and how the world knows things in a spooky way sometimes:
Scorpio - Someone may have a good money-making plan but it doesn't necessarily mean it will work for you. A change in plans will probably cost a little more but, in the end, you will be better off not scrimping. Ooooooooooo.... Ahhhhhhhhhhhh...
No, I'm not sick.
Perhaps sick in the head, but that's a different story.
I am on vacation this week and have officially started the PhD application process. Yesterday I spent quite a few hours in organizational preparation. Digging through old files to find dusty copies of ancient transcripts. Collecting a variety of office supplies such as file folders, stickies, and a label maker. Finding and bookmarking the online application websites and program application checklist sites. Digging through the kitchen junk drawer to find the GRE report sheet from 6 months ago. Collecting contact information for jobs and folks writing recommendations.
Today I had my GRE scores sent to all the schools I'm applying to and have been busily filling out the online applications. I found a few things online that were very helpful that I thought I'd share...
First, a GPA calculator. The one linked below from Iowa State will calculate your overall and major GPAs for your whole college experience and/or for the last two years. I had to do all four calculations for various applications.
http://www.iastate.edu/~registrar/gpa-calc/gpaCalculator.html
Second, a tool that counts both the number of words and characters. I misread one application section thinking I had 320 words to explain my various jobs. Nope... 320 characters. Do you have any idea how hard it is to narrow something down that far? Of course you do. You've already been there.
http://allworldphone.com/count-words-characters.htm
Tomorrow I plan to get transcripts ordered and get a good start on my personal statement. After that I need to revise my resume, tinker with my writing sample, and get packets together for the people writing my recommendations.
Wow. Written in a list like that it does not seem so bad. I'll come back and revisit that statement in a few days as I'm using the word count tool to revise and revise and revise my personal statement for each school. Fun!
From my good friends at I Can Has Cheeseburger Plz...
