2007-11-14 - 12:06 a.m.
I decided to take the day off from the library today because I have a stomach ache – and since I took the day off, I find myself beset with a variety of choices, all of which I really must tackle.
You know how much I loathe making decisions, dear blog-a-licious blog. I will put off a decision until the last possible moment and then work it up again in the other direction until I rush off in a half baked manner and do the stupidest thing possible. You see, in my dotage I have discovered that my instincts are simply appalling. Can’t you tell? Why else would I find myself at 43, living the life of a 23 year old?
Here is the most basic choice that I must make. As you know, I am getting my ducks in a row to apply for UCLA Library School this fall, and the deadline for the application is mid-December. Amongst the many ridiculous things I must do is get personal recommendations from people who love me (I am strained to think of one person, let alone three).
I have to get transcripts sent to UCLA from the U of C, and I have to write a charming and genial application essay. And I must take the GREs. Have you heard of anything more ludicrous than a middle aged guy taking the GREs? It’s absurd.
Anyway, I just went to the GRE website a few moments ago and discovered that there are two possible dates to take exam before the application is due. I can take the test on Friday, just two days away. Or I can wait until December 4th. I must confess that the December 4th exam is by far the more appealing date for such a thing – but do I have real reasons for my preference, or am I just being a procrastinator? It’s hard to say. There isn’t that much preparation information available for the GRES – they’re not like the SATs where everyone and their mama has a How To Take The SAT book.
It might be nice to get it all over and done with at once, so I can just forget about it. Or it might be nice to just be lazy and wait until December 4th. It is rather irritating that they only have those particular days available, isn’t it? I’d much rather take the exam in about a week and a half.
Frankly, I am not the least worried about the verbal or essay sections of the GRE. I’m going to do just fine on those areas, mainly because I have written and analyzed stuff every day for the last 20 years. The math, though… Oy! The math is going to be a real oinker. Do you realize I haven’t looked at a math textbook for 20 – no, 25 – years?
I see these triangles, with their 90 degree angles, and those graphs, and the “this column is greater than that column” and my eyes bug. So I don’t know what is going to happen! It’s crazy how stupid I am – I don’t remember anything about this stuff. My goal is to get an “average” score on the maths. If I can do that, I’ll be just fine, I figure.
Do stay tuned and you shall find out the cliffhanger answer to this crucial question! I am sure that you are on tenterhooks about it, just as I am.
Yesterday was a “staff day” at the library, meaning the doors were locked and only the librarians and pages were allowed in, so they could attend a variety of speeches and attractions that had been organized for our edification. These included a pompous and tedious lecture on the topic of “The Future of Libraries,” and also a magician, who performed this funky trick.
The magician passed out pages of this week’s issue of PEOPLE magazine, all of which had been numbered, and then he had us call out the numbers of the pages. Each time we did, the magician described to us, without looking, the contents of the page. It was actually quite amazing! I could not for the life of me figure out how he did it, without memorizing the contents of each page, which would be rather impossible. Even now I can’t imagine how he did it; it was quite startling.
Mind you, midway through the act, I started to get the stomach ache from which I am now suffering. And then, this morning, it was bad enough for me to call the library and say that I was sleeping in. It’s funny: If today had been a script reading day, I could have done that easily. But at the library, I must move around and be pleasant, neither of which I was in a mind to be able to do with my stomach screeching like I had swallowed a brownie full of ground glass.
Given that the library is a place where no one knows you from Adam, there was no trouble with me blowing it off. It’s a funny thing to be a totally anonymous cog in a big machine – not what I was brought up to be at all. But, rest assured, dear friends, this is what happens when you sort of devote your life to art – and the art gives you up midway through.
And on that note, it’s back to studying Quantitative Comparisons for the GREs.
