Story news: I've been writing more recently, possibly spurred to productivity in wake of the other news down below. Hopefully I will have some drafts finished by the end of the week. I've enlisted a friend to read said drafts; if you're interested in joining in, send me a note!

Other news: I apologize if I've seemed a bit out of it, recently, to anyone who's been missing me / messaging me. The last week or two have been sort of overwhelming. What initially seemed like a crappy week, filled with rejection letters and my FWA plans being cancelled, ended better than I could have possibly imagined. The reasons for that are twofold:

1.) Birthday festivities. Surprise visits from the family and lots of food and Starcraft 2 with the brother. This is more or less responsible for my disappearing off the face of LoL, YIM, and e-mail. It turns out we had more to celebrate than just my birthday, though:

2.) Just before I was about to head home, I received shocking news: I was accepted into my top choice summer research/intern program. This is a program to which I almost didn't apply because I knew for certain it was just going to be a waste of time.

This is so exciting that every time I think about it I can barely contain myself. I legitimately feel there is no single better program anywhere in the US for me right now, with my research interests. It pays, too--research experience is so much more important that I don't even care about the money, but it's hard to deny that a $700/week salary is pretty damn good. It seems silly to say this so far in advance, but this single event makes me feel as if I have an extremely strong shot at a future in academia.

(I also recently received my university's "outstanding sophomore physics major" award, which feels kind of good and has a small scholarship attached to it.)

I feel really good right now. Except for that I've sort of been out of contact with everyone for the past week except family and a few con-goers. Thankfully, it's been for a good reason!