I was hoping that the next blog post I made would be after I received at least one response from one of the grad schools to which I applied in Québec. 'Tis not the case. I know that it's to be expected for a graduate school to take longer to reply than an undergraduate school, but... gah. Waiting to hear back from the three undergraduate schools I'd applied to back in 2011 seemed so long, but that was all within a period of like three weeks. Now we're past a month. I'm able to see a sort of "status" for one of the schools, which says they've done a preliminary review of my application, but I still have no idea if I'll even receive a response soon, whether it's to ask me for an interview, or reject or accept me. I just have no idea and it's killing me.
Most people I've spoken to think I'm incredibly negative. Why? Because I am quite convinced that I will not be accepted to a single grad school. This, however, isn't pessimism on my part. When everyone is telling me that they're sure I'll be accepted to at least one, how can I allow myself to raise my hopes and believe along with them? Nothing would be worse than being sure that I'll get accepted only to get rejected by all of them. It's so much easier to dread something's arrival than to eagerly await it. If I was convinced I would get in, then this waiting period would be all the more agonizing. So, yeah, don't expect me to act excited or eager if you talk to me about grad school.
On the plus side, US Bruno Fans (the official American fan page for Bruno Pelletier, for which I am one of three administrators, for those just tuning in) has completed a twenty-five-day-long campaign in which we sold t-shirts designed by Lauren, 100% of the proceeds from which were donated to the Québec Cancer Foundation for which Bruno is the official spokesperson. There was a whole bunch of headaches involved in the beginning because of supposed copyright infringement by using Bruno's name, but because we had Bruno's support for the project, it was just a matter of smoothing things over. Which we did! While I had thought we might sell about five t-shirts, we actually sold twenty-four, which is great! We ended up making $230 CAD for the Foundation, which isn't a lot, but it's a good amount! The campaign ended on March 11 and then, that evening, we were in for a surprise. Kat and I had just got done watching Friends when I went upstairs, got on my laptop, scrolled through Facebook, and shrieked when I saw the following status:
Which translates to: "I would like to take a moment to thank my friends from the American fan club who took the initiative of making shirts to profit the Québec Cancer Foundation for which I am the spokespearn. So to Ashlee who came up with the idea for it as well as Sarah and Ekaterina who collaborated and Lauren who made the design for it, in the name of the Foundation, a great thank you! In addition to the $230 that you raised, it is your heart that resonates to here in the walls of the Foundation. Bravo and thank you again! Bruno"
Holy crap, people. How many people can say that their favorite singer has posted a status mentioning them and/or thanking them? NOT MANY. I was, believe it or not, equally excited that he mentioned Lauren since designers are, like, never thanked for their work and are usually behind the scenes. So I'm sooo glad that she got recognized! But seriously. I squealed and spun and danced and it was beautiful. Let us also note that, for the third time, Bruno has spelled my name correctly. [There was a time when he replied to me on Twitter but accidentally left out the 'h', but he had the 'e's, so I count it.] Not too long ago I received an email from a professor who, though he or she has known me for almost four years, they still managed to spell it 'Ashley.' Grr.
Another good distraction from the waiting game has been the fact that Josh Groban announced his new album, Stages. This is normally pretty cool in and of itself, but then I got a text message from Lauren with her excitedly shrieking, "Josh is singing Le temps des cathédrales on his new album!!" For a second, I didn't believe her; I mean, it just seemed too good to be true when we've been silently begging Josh to sing something of Bruno's and vice versa. Granted, it's not Jusqu'à la dernière femme as I've always hoped, and Cathédrales isn't my favorite song, but I'll take what I can get. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?! AHHH!!!
In other news, tomorrow is the last day of midterm break and I am sad. I am currently counting down the days 'til Easter (three weeks) since we'll get that Monday off. (It's called Spring Break, but we all know it's Easter Break--they just can't call it that.)
