PS Hell

Writing my AMCAS personal statement is so frustrating. I think i got overwhelmed by all this advice and wrote all i could and now it's too long or there's not enough "flesh" in what i talk about. My first few drafts were okay and my editors (friends and bio counselors to whom i am SOOO grateful) gave me good tips. Then one of the postdocs here ripped it apart, pretty much reducing me to cry (figuratively) and rewrite the whole thing. And now one of my other friends says it's too research focused, which i agree it is, so now i have to somehow balance my two statements with the right experiences and the right amount of flesh and story AND make it fit in the character limit. I feel so helpless writing it, sending it out to people, and WAITING for their comments. I understand they're busy and all, but it's so just frustrating to wait. And my goal is to send out this damn thing by the end of next week, and hopefully i can get my other letters of rec done before secondaries come out. ARGH!!!!

At least Pat's on vacation so i do have time at work to work on it, kinda. As of now i'm applying to all the CA, DC, MD, and VA schools, and most schools in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York.

In other news, my first 4th of July in our nation's capital went by pretty well. Rosanna had a little shindig at her new pad in capitol hill, and i got plastered after 2 glasses of wine (i'm so predictable when it comes to alcohol, sigh). We went down to the Mall to see the fireworks - it was NASTY HUMID at like 9pm, there were tons of people, and the grass was icky. The fireworks were okay, we had a decent view, but i wasn't as impressed as i expected. I miss the Hollywood Bowl fireworks show...i guess i've been so used to theirs that i expected the same kind of choreography with the music. But it was still nice to see it over the Washington monument, the only one i could see from my vantage point.