Look with your eyes, not with your hands.


Such a minute fraction of this life do we live: so much is sleep, tooth-brushing, waiting for mail, for metamorphosis, for those sudden moments of incandescence: unexpected, but once one knows them, one can live life in the light of their past and the hope of their future.



A grad student muses on her life, film, friends, politics, reality televizzle, and music.

 
Come and Find Me

Unfortunately, I started to get into College Radio as I was getting out of college. This weekend is the big Sepomana event, thrown by WRMC, at Middlebury. One of the acts, Josh Ritter, has been getting a lot of play on Lisa Jasinski radio. A few weeks back, Kathy Bates directed the best episode of Six Feet Under that I have ever seen - it was the show at its best, it was funny, it was telling, and it was just very good. Part of the episode centered around a trip to the mountains for Nate and Lisa and in the last moments of the show Josh Ritter's "Come and Find Me" came up and played through the credits. Such a good song, I've just about played it out in the time since the episode aired. Now he's playing at Middlebury and I am not there to appreciate it, it is certainly my loss. Since I have a crappy 11-3 shift tomorrow, I don't have the option of making a surprise last minute cameo, but I wish I could. Two more weeks until graduation though - looking very much to this vacation, if you couldn't tell, since it's my one big thing to look forward to before August.

Let's all breathe a collective sigh of relief because I have somewhere to live in Madison. My rental company called yesterday and said that my application was approved. I was a little nervous because I have no rental history and I have next to no money. Obviously I'll have next-to-no money coming in on a regular basis next year, but I don't really know how this whole thing works so I was a little nervous. My parents agreed to co-sign with me, but just the same, until it was approved I was little uneasy. But I am glad that everything's worked out. I will sign a copy of the lease this week and fax it to them and then sign the original when I am in Madison this August. I still haven't seen the place and I am waiting on the measurements, but honestly, it doesn't matter. Ideally, I'd like to stay there more than a year to save myself the trouble of moving, but there is always the option to try somewhere new if this place isn't a fit. For the time being, I'll trust the photos and the word of mouth recommendation and I am excited to be housed.

This move gets a lot of talk time around the house now, but I have very little apprehension. I expect to feel differently when the time comes, but generally, I tend not to be too nervous before making a big change or moving away or going into something new. At this point, I am purely excited and anxious to begin already. I am biased because until now, I've always had great luck in being what has always felt like the right place at exactly the right time. I've passed through cities just as the right friends were almost hand-selected and handed to me on a silver platter. Opportunity has always abounded at the right time, and I admit that I have almost gotten off too easy, because I never had to think very hard about what I wanted to do, there seemed to be a job or a research assignment there for me. I heard something on Oprah a while back, and yes, forgive for quoting Oprah, but she said something like luck is being prepared to seize an opportunity when it comes. It basically flips luck around and instead of crediting your success to something metaphysical, you get to pat yourself on the back (and well, this is hard to do because picturing it is just absurd-looking). Who is to say, but I am thrilled to get a fresh start this fall and I am eager to explore and discover Madison, nevermind get embedded in a new discipline.

It is nice to have a Saturday off and essentially to myself. I've had a leisurely morning of watching re-runs on MTV, drinking coffee, and gearing up for a shower, a chance to catch up on my laundry (working in a clothing store puts awful demands on getting ready every morning), and organizing. I need to put a lot of financial documents in order for my loan consolidation - oh, and as a public service to all you out there with education debt, here's what I have learned thus far: you should consolidate what you can before July, 1. This is particularly advantageous if you can consolidate in your six-month post-grad grace period. You can lock in a rate of something absurdly low like 3.46%. If you aren't in grace, it's still like 4%, and in July it'll go up over 5%, which is still a really competitive rate in the scheme of things... but it's better to do it now. If you consolidate through a company like Sallie Mae, you can stretch out your payments, whereas if you keep them with "Direct Loans," the rate flucuates annually and you have to pay them back in 10 years. If you use Sallie Mae, you can still defer payments while in school - in fact, I think I am going to take a plan where I only pay the interest while I am in grad school, so the principle won't grow but I am still not hindered by loan payments on my $1,100 a month before taxes. I feel like I have a solid handle on this - of course, I still won't make payments for five years, but still, I feel like I have a good rate that I am happy with. On that note, cleanliness calls.
posted by lmjasinski at 10:24 AM