The semester has begun for most, which has meant relatively little change to me. I’m entering 98 days without work right now, not counting the couple of days where I helped my mom rake a yard old school style. I’m signed up to take yet another AEPA test in two weeks, but I don’t entirely know why. The GRE is scheduled for October, and I’m wondering how exactly to prepare for that. In between, I have no idea what I’ll do. With school starting, I’ve found some reprieve in seeing a few friends between classes, and I have a few chores around the house that have yet to be done despite the longest summer ever.

I’ve taken up a hobby that really isn’t all that new. I’ve decided that I’m going to submit whole new writing samples with my graduate school applications, so I’m doing research on a new paper. I’m two pages of writing and several books and articles in and I’m starting to wonder if it’s really worth it. It’s not like my writing has improved that much. The paper only maybe passes the “so what?” test that my history professor always said to use. Looking at my list of hopeful grad schools, I wonder if this would make any difference, or if I’d get into any of these places at all.

Most of the time I teeter between being absolutely bored out of my mind and being daunted by the lamest to-do list. I’ve found myself missing the little things and plotting faraway things and living off a useless sleep schedule, all while checking off things like “go to the store” and “sweep the patio.” I’m weighing a menial job versus volunteer work as far as finding something to do. Bottom line is that I don’t know what I’m doing. I was unemployed for the first five months of this year and it was one of the greatest (most stressful) things I’ve done. The more recent three months have been a bit less eventful. I guess going to the White House beats having a student try to take pills in my class, though.

I’m thinking of setting up a routine. That way I should get my research done in a timely manner, get in some studying for the GRE, and maybe get this kitchen re-vamp underway. And there’s always the task of finding something to blog about. What ever happened to that?