I feel a lot better than I did last night. I got a good night's sleep, after talking a lot with Joe. Then I called my mom this morning and had a good long talk with her, too.

Later, I went down to the mailbox, and dreaded opening it. I didn't want to see the paper version of the rejection letter from UCLA. And I didn't! Instead, there was a large package that I had to carefully maneuver out of my tiny mailbox. It was from my dear Angela! I went out and ran a couple of short errands, all the while wondering what was in the package. When I got back home, even before I could open the package, I saw the blinking red light of my cell phone. Angela had called me! She had actually called with a dog behavior question (she is pet-sitting). How cool that she called me for advice!

I left her a message, and then she called me back shortly afterwards.

In the few minutes before she called back, I was able to sit and open the package she sent. Inside was a variety of belated anniversary gifts! A "date in a box," she called it, complete with Blockbuster Video gift card, popcorn, candy, Dominos Pizza gift certificates, a CD of romantic hits she burned especially for us, and a really cute anniversary card. She also included these adorable NYC key chains for each of us, with our names on them. I'm always amazed to see stuff with "Meghan" on it. It used to be that you could only ever find "Megan" personalized souvenirs. Times are a-changin', apparently! Anyway, all the gifts were totally cute, packaged with pretty bows and things, and all of it chosen so thoughtfully for Joe and me to share. Super cool! I love Angela!

I was so excited when she called back and I was able to thank her for everything. We talked a lot about dogs, animals, pet-sitting, etc. And UCLA. I realized that the two times I'd been accepted before, I had applied as a Psych major. This past November, I applied as a Biology major, and I think that was my mistake. So, I feel like a major heel about that.

But from talking to Angela, I felt totally cheered up. I asked about her classes and term papers, and she asked me about my preschool classes. It was so much fun sharing stories! Then she told me it was so cool that I'd had so many interesting jobs already and said, "Imagine if you'd gone right into the university. You might not have gotten to do any of this cool stuff!" And then I felt totally great and reassured about everything I've done up here in the Bay Area so far. And feeling happy about those accomplishments makes the sting of rejection far less severe.

I'm in the midst of forming a plan right now. As I see it, I have a couple of options open to me...

1) apply to a completely different college altogether, to start Winter 2004

2) go back to my old college, take some classes there for a while, and re-apply to UCLA (as a Psych major!), and/or apply to EATM, both of which would begin Fall 2004, if I'm accepted.

I'd apply to UCLA for Winter or Spring 2004, except unfortunately, that's not an option, because they're not accepting any new students until the following Fall.

I am not exactly sure what's going to happen, but both choices seem like fairly good ones. So, I'm not really freaking out as much anymore. And that is a good thing.

~~Meg