So, all the college decicions are in...

Jenae's final college tally (with all of those names written out, not to be pretentious, but just because I want to):

Accepted:
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, WA)
Pitzer College
Scripps College

Waitlisted:
Washington University in St. Louis

REJECTED:
Brown University
Pomona College

This pretty much guarantees I'm going to be in California next year (unless I went to UPS, but I don't think it's probably worth the money at this point since I'm into Cal and UCLA), which I'm both excited and disappointed about. Part of me wanted to go somewhere with four seasons where there would be more "national" diversity (á la Iowa), but I'm happy that I won't have to take a plane to wherever I'm going (I hate airplane travel).

So, what are Jenae's top two choices, you ask?

UCLA vs. Scripps

So, I feel as if I should post that I got accepted to The University of California, Los Angeles.

It's super exciting and I'm really happy about it, but I can't help but feel a strange tinge of guilt that other people deserved it more...

Perhaps I'm just being silly, but I really didn't expect to get in.

Granted, the only reason I applied was because I knew it was a good school with a killer English department. Plus, if I ever wanted to go into screenplay writing, UCLA would be an awesome place to pursue that.

What surprised me most about UCLA when I visited this last weekend was that I actually liked it. No, I really liked it. I thought it was as nice, if not nicer, than a lot of the private schools I've visited. The campus is beautiful, the opportunities there are simply incredible (they offer Swahili and African "click" language as classes!), they officially offer 3 years of guaranteed housing but most people can get 4, AND there is a miraculously small population of cloned Paris Hiltons. It's marvelous.

I visited UCLA with this preconceived notion that I was going to dislike it. I thought it would be too "SoCal," too Beverly Hills, or too snobby. When I actually stopped judging everything I saw, though, I realized what an amazing place it was. It felt vibrant and large and a place where there would always be new things to discover. It seems like such a grand adventure that would, honestly, help me grow. I remember thinking, before I came to ML, that I wouldn't really like it much either because, in my 8th grade mind, it was too big and competitive. However, when I visited Mira Loma, it felt so alive and full of opportunities. I couldn't have made a better choice.

So, UCLA has shot up on my list of college preferences. I'm not sure where it will be next week, as my college preferences seem to shift as quickly as lava floating inside a lamp (strange analogy I know, but that's how I visualize my mind right now. It's one, huge, vacuous, melting lava lamp).

... On the other hand, part of me still has a piece of my heart in the Claremonts. Plus, I'm still holding out a small inkling of hope for Brown even though I'm about 99% sure I'll be rejected.

There are my college ramblings of the day. Part of me is getting sick of discussing it and another part of me knows that everyone else is getting sick of hearing me discuss it, but it's kind of addicting.

I just wish the decision-making would be a lot easier.

I discovered that I'm allergic to shrimp... in my eye.

This probably requires some degree of explanation.

I went out to dinner with my parents tonight at a swanky restaurant (Slocum House for those of you who are curious. My dad got some kind of gift certificate there from a patient) and it was tasty to the max. I ordered a dish that had bass, shrimp, and "blackened rice" (it was this strange, gunkier rice-like substance. Apparently emperors in China ate it... but I digress). As I struggled to cut through the huge shrimp my mother, the perceptive parent she is, noticed that the shrimp was strung on to skewers (they were big pieces, OK! it was hard to tell they were connected to anything!). For those of you who have ever seen me eat a kabob, I am horrible with skewer control. I simply cannot be graceful when pushing meat off of those stupid wooden sticks. So, as embarassed as I was to use my hands in a fancy restaurant, I pinched one end of the skewer with my finger and pushed the meat off with my fork.

OK. That was the boring context part.

My contact started to itch, so I (subtly, I swear) rubbed my eye. Then, it started itching more. Naturally, I rubbed again, but it still itched.

Then. Pain!

Needles! Needles of airborne particles were being jammed in my eye! I was sure of it! I ran to the restroom and plucked the contact out of my eye, ran it under the faucet, and put it back in again.

That, unfortunately, did not remedy the problem.

I looked into the mirror again (with contact) and my right eye was red . It wasn't just a little pink, it was bloodshot, swollen red.

So, I took it back out, carried it over to where my parents were sitting and filled my spoon with water (ha) and put the contact into the water.

It all happened so suddenly. I whined. I complained. I was half-blind (I'm legally blind in my right eye. It's sad). Then, my father had an epiphany (yes, it was that profound).

"Did you have any food on your hand when you touched your eye?"

YES! The remnants of shrimp juice were the culprit! Those tiger prawns caused my deep 20-minute long suffering! My father actually has the same problem, only it's with papayas. He cannot get papaya juice in his eye or his eyes get swollen and bloodshot. Apparently, I have the same problem with shrimp.

FIN.

Currently Listening Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante For Violin And Viola, K. 364; Schubert: String Quartet D. 956 / Brainin, Schidlof, Pleeth, et al By Harry Blech, Norbert Brainin, Peter Schidlof, William Pleeth, Amadeus String Quartet see related

I feel like I want to post something, but I don't really have anything important to say.

Gah.

Well, that's annoying.

I'll just talk about my day. How's that?

Lazer tag was super exciting (even though I didn't do extraordinarily well... 12th place out of 15! wooo!). The blue team totally rocked, even though I found myself getting lost inside the lazer tag "arena" (is that what it's called?). I hadn't played in so long and I proved to be one of the more pathetic players as I shot at members on my own team AND I shot at walls. However, I actually got some people and... our team got second place out of three teams! Plus, I played DDR for the first time (for free!). I've figured out that I have absolutely no coordination, but I attribute the fact that I couldn't follow the silly flashing arrows to the fact that there was no sound on the machine. I guess there's a reason why it was free...

I'm glad everyone seemed to have fun tonight, though, and I'm glad that Josh was surprised! :D

On a tangential note, I've been so not motivated to do homework lately. I still do it pretty diligently, but it feels like such busy work (especially Spanish... ay, dios mio!). My teachers, however, don't seem to understand the whole "senioritis" thing and hence... lots of homework. ::sigh:: I'm whining again. I've decided that I complain way more than I should, but I guess that's what a blog is for right?

... but... today was fun. :) Oh, the joys of friends.

Ooh... and Happy Birthday to Mozart! The Maestro is pretty old, but his music lives on. Please note that I'm not making this homage simply to prove a point that I enjoy classical music. I honestly think it's pretty awesome that we're still keeping track of birthdays of famous composers. While I think Mozart is kind of overrated (to be perfectly honest), his music is still genius.

Here's a conclusion. Blah. Creativity is an all-time low. Humbug.

NOTE: My "Currently Listening" is actually the track I'm presently listening to, rather than the CD. Xanga apparently doesn't have "100 Mozart Melodies." Hmm.