after one long season of waiting

Definitely a little worse for wear after the five hours I spent at work yesterday. My brain is clambering to escape, and is managing it in the oddest of ways. I kept typing completely unrelated (though interesting) words into documents today (foreclosing on a mortgage from "Homestar Mortgage" didn't help anything at all). I hope I caught all of them. Also, on my way to work, while passing through the intersection of Madison and Clark, just as I was considering whether I should ride over the manhole cover or swerve to avoid it, it occurred to me how strange it is that no one pays any mind to the fact that "Roman" is most of the word "romance." "What the heck is up with that?" says my brain and so, now that I'm home and enjoying the few hours of free time I get, I find myself poking around etymology dictionaries. It turns out "romance" was more a term for adventure stories/chivalrous tales told in the vernacular (or at least, romance-language vernacular, specifically French which, of course, is derived from Latin, the language of the Romans, hence romance in that sense). It was basically just knight-in-shining-armor stuff until about the 1600s (300 years from when it first appeared), when it gained the love story sense, then it puttered along for another 200+ years before it was possible to have "a romance" outside of a story, and then, around the 1940s, supposedly, is when the verb form appeared. Until the 1940s, you couldn't romance someone! How weird is that? (How easy is it to be unintentionally anachronistic when writing period pieces, too!)

I'm pretty sure this is a sign that it's time for me to go back to school (this will be the theme, I think, for the next few months, as if it hasn't been for the months prior to this as well). As such, I'm really looking forward to my trek up to Northwestern next Friday to check out Medill (especially since Northwestern is supposed to be the sworn enemy of the UofC). Hopefully they won't say anything like "Oh, you'll never get in with that GPA," or "No journalism experience? What are you thinking?" Also, hopefully I won't just hide in the corner, and will actually talk to someone about whether it's what I really want to do. Hrm.

So, I was thinking going to culinary school would be like, I don't know, attending a state school or something, price-wise. $22,000??? For 24 weeks? That's... I mean... freaking crap. A year at the UofC was like, $30,000 when I stared (it's almost $40k now, but whatever). And the application fee is... unmentionable. Freaking crap, man, who the heck has that kind of money if they're going to go work in a bakery? Crap. Do all associates degrees cost this much? What the heck?

Why is every irrational dream I have completely unattainable in the dumbest ways possible?

Man, I am going back to wanting to be an astronaut. At least it was a lack of science aptitude that was keeping me from that, rather than CRAZY TUITION or NO ONE IS HIRING YOU HAHA UNLESS YOU WORK FOR FREE or, I don't know, SCREW VALID CULTURAL EXCHANGE, YOU'RE NOT CORPORATE ENOUGH TO TEACH OUR CHILDREN YOU HIPPIE.