Today could just not. Get. Any. Better!!!

The best thing just happened like ten minutes ago, and I cannot even contain myself enough to go in chronological order, so here's the news! I heard from the zoo school I've been dying to go to! They have my application, "plus all the required material requested by the program." I passed the first part! Now, I just need to attend one of the informational meetings. I get to pick from two dates in March. I will discuss it later with Joe to see which is the better choice for us, and to see if he can even go. I really hope so!

OH MY GOD. It all feels so real now! And all my fears about my application getting lost in the mail or being highlighted slightly incorrectly, or arranged incorrectly, or having some stupid error I missed are all gone. Gone! I am relieved and excited and amazed that I am fortunate enough to be able to continue onto the next step.

Apparently, the website said a whole ton of people either don't attend the meetings (immediate disqualification for acceptance to the program), or bow out after they hear all the overwhelming information about the program. That'll thin out the herd a little bit, and then those of us who are left (and you bet your ass I'll be one of them) will have our names in the database, and we'll hear for SURE in May whether we get in or not. MAY. That really seems far away right now, even though it's kind of not at the same time. BUT! March is close! And that's what I'm excited about right now! Hearing the information, talking to people, touring the school's zoo. I can't even... I just. I'm at a loss for words for how freaking ass cool this is!!!

Okay, I will stop now.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Okay. NOW. Okay...

Other good stories to tell:

When Joe left the house this morning, I yelled, "Bye!" after him, and he said, "Bye!" and shut the door. Then I heard the door re-open, and his voice yelled sweetly into the apartment, "I LOVE YOU!" I smiled from ear to ear and called out, "I love you, too!" before hearing him shut the door again. Aren't we cute? Hee!

(Okay, no one's even reading this anymore. I've turned everyone away with my giddiness! Uh... I have cramps! Wait, that doesn't help, does it?)

So this morning, I meditated for twenty minutes. In a row! That's pretty unusual for me. I almost always meditate for only five or ten minutes. I felt really good afterwards. It's amazing how I don't even realize how cluttered my brain feels until I meditate. Some days I can quiet my mind super quickly, and other days, like today, I find myself still working at being quiet inside my head after twenty minutes have passed. It's cool, though. It's different every time, and man do I stay calmer throughout the day when I do it in the morning. I've got to make an effort to do that more often.

Then I walked to therapy! It's a little over a half-mile. So, not only was the walk nice, but therapy was a lot of fun. My doctor has some really good insights into stuff. I guess that's why she's the doctor!

On the way back from therapy, I stopped at Subway, which I haven't had in forever, and which was delicious. Just outside of Subway, I smelled something that immediately made me think of Joe. I felt all squishy inside and had a big smile on my face before I'd even identified the smell. Want to know what it was? Cigars!!! This, as you may know, is simply unheard of in my little world. For, like, ever, I have hated cigar smoke. Even more than cigarette smoke! But, truth be told, I've gotten a lot more used to cigarette smoke through having some awesome friends who just happen to be smokers. I think the reason I used to have such severe I-can't-breathe-anymore reactions around that smoke was a combination of a few factors:

1) My allergies in general were much worse in my childhood. I may have outgrown a few of them.

2) My anxiety may have exacerbated some of the allergic reactions I had. I'd smell cigarettes and freak out, and so my body reacted more harshly than if I just didn't care (like now).

3) I was allergic to every damn thing in the air in Texas. Pollen, mold, cedar, oak, blah dee blah blah BLAH. Cigarette smoke on top of that? Not fun.

But now, I don't even react as badly in the first place. (Like I said, outgrowing the allergies, staying calm and unbothered by the smoke, no other allergens harrassing my delicate sniffer...) And in the second place, Joe and his co-workers have been having regular Cigar Nights. Every time he comes home smelling like cigars, I'm a tad bit weary of him (then he changes his shirt and all is well). Except for that one time they smoked some very fine cigars. That night, his kisses still tasted good, and I didn't even mind the cigar smell. Weird. Anyway, it's just funny that I tend not to even like the smell while it's on him, but smelling cigars out of context immediately made me feel all goofy for him. That, I must say, was highly unexpected and actually, a little cool. Just goes to show how strongly smells imprint themselves in our brains. I find this stuff fascinating. Which leads me to believe I really do need to look into aromatherapy more. Awesome stuff!

Then I read online all this cool stuff about intention, and how thinking your way to success can really work. And it made me feel good. That was the kind of stuff I enjoyed hearing in those Mary Kay meetings of Christmas Past. When I quit Mary Kay, I thought, "Well, I won't get to hear all that inspirational stuff anymore, but oh well." And now, here it is! On the internet! God bless the internet, man. Every kind of site imagineable. Awesome.

Then, even though I didn't want to, I made myself go outside and run some errands. I got everything done, and now we have organic fruit in the house. And cheese!

Oh yeah, and I got to vote for Fantasia last night on American Idol. She is my favorite! Tonight is the results show. So exciting! That show is too much fun! (And I am such a spaz for being all excited about it!)

I guess that's it! That's all the happy I'll be spreading around today, y'all. And I think that's quite enough for a while, huh? I don't often get all "squee" on the internet, but when I do, hooboy! Hold onto your socks! (I don't know what that means.)