The Rabbit Hole

This morning, I got passed by a hotdogging cyclist headed northbound on St. Nicholas as I'm turning onto it. I could tell he was hotdogger because he was speeding through intersections when he didn't have the light; he was also wearing a t-shirt and shorts, while I am still cold at work, an hour later, despite wearing many layers this morning. When he gets to the police station at 122nd, however, he stops cold while I breeze through. Ten seconds later, he catches up and warns me not to be so cavalier around that area as he got a ticket there for running a red. He then runs the red at 125th street, an intersection I hesitate to cross when I do have the light. So, cautious, but not repentant.

In other news, my babiest baby sister got into a dental school! She's very excited, obviously, and it was one that she was pretty much in love with, so I think the application/interview process may be over, far as she's concerned. I'm very proud of her! Of course, the bar is now set very high for me to get into school, so I'm also a little mad at her :)

People have been asking me questions about vet school applications, and the unfortunate fact is that there really isn't news. Most schools will have interviews, but they won't be until January or February, so I won't hear back from them until (probably) next year. I went and checked all the fact sheets for schools and only Cornell said that I could expect to hear whether I got an interview in December.

Clearly, I didn't read these fact sheets closely enough because I got an e-mail today from the Royal Veterinary College telling me that I had been selected for an interview!!!!

I am excited, obviously, but my biggest sense is RELIEF. I am relieved to know that at least at one of the schools to which I applied I had a competitive enough application to make it to their second round. It's also a big relief just to hear something. Because of all the questions I'd been asked of late, I was beginning to get a little anxious that I hadn't heard anything. With electronic submissions these days, the most you get from schools is a checklist of what you've submitted and no other feedback otherwise. It's a little scary sending out stuff into the ether and not know whether it's made any impression. Here's hoping I get similarly good news from Cornell next month...

( The true story of a 4th of July animal rescue )

The best part of this--besides the fact that some people might be getting a kitty that's awesome and that the kitty is going to a good home and was saved--is that I can now use this in my personal statement for vet school. Okay, that's not the best part, but I'm still totally going to use it. If I were already a goddamned vet, which I should be, really, as there's no excuse for all the time I've not spent working on that since graduating, I could have taken care of this with so much less fuss. It's strengthened my resolve, if nothing else. Applications, here I come!

Anyway, that's a much better story about my weekend than "I got sick and I hated it." I'm still recovering from the awful cold with the worst sinus pressure I've ever had when sick that has turned into an awful cough that may leave me as voiceless as feiran  was this weekend. Let's hope not. I never do well when I can't talk. I'm a talker! I like being heard, damn it!

Me!

I was totally wonked by the start-of-the-week-isn't-Monday thing and I missed my class last night. At least I got the bathroom cleaned. I missed class, yes, but I didn't just goof off with my ill-gotten hours.

Speaking of class, need to go get the form not to be raped by the tuition for what is, essentially, a play-fun-happy class for me.

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I mentioned (somewhere at the bottom of this post) that I'd seen Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End already at the drive-in upstate. I also mentioned that, drive-in speaker quality being what it is and rain having the effect it does on your viewscreen (i.e. windshield), I didn't really see it all that well. Would anyone be interested in maybe a matinee showing some time this weekend? Matinees are any show before 12 noon, I believe.

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Actually, I saw two movies at the drive-in, which is a steal for $7. Hell, I'd pay that much for Pirates alone, and sometimes the second movie is worth it to. Alas, not the case with the last second-movie I saw: The Invisible. This was a Sixth Sense rip-off for the teens only not really because the guy knew he was dead. Only he wasn't, really. Confusing? Not really when you see it. Note: DO NOT BOTHER SEEING THIS MOVIE. Not even you, ivy03, even if it does have Callum Keith Rennie in it.

You know what makes it really an egregious bit of cinematic trash? The story resolves with the person responsible for the "murder" coming around to realizing she did something wrong and trying to make amends about two days too late. I hate this kind of thing. I know last-minute rescues are most daring, but really? If you're the "bad guy having a change of heart" in a situation without time pressure other than the length of time it takes for person to die of exposure (which isn't that immediate), CHANGE YOUR MIND BEFORE DAY THREE, GODDAMNIT.

This is what bugged both feiran and I about Saw III. The purpose of the tests this time around were to challenge a guy to loook past his hatred and save people in distress who'd wronged him in the past. For at least some of them, he'd wait until they were unsaveable before he'd have his change of heart. WTF? Why bother? This is a pet peeve of mine, which I'm sure can be countered with many a good example of last-minute changes of heart that resolved to the benefit of the heroes (David Morse's and Ed Harris' in The Rock is one), but still. It's like moonlightalice hating on narratives that rely on mistaken coincidences to sustain character arcs (I think at the time she was referring to Harry and Peter's unconsummated lust confusion over Norman Osborne's death in Spider-Man 3). There may be plenty of good uses of this narratively weak device, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a narratively weak device.