In a moment of zen pleasure I've discovered that Champagne (that faux-French bakery) does, in fact, make a mocha quite similar in texture and flavor to one made directly by Tully's. I suspected it was a possibility since they sell Tully's coffee beans and brew that brand of coffee, but since so many other ingredients go into a mocha, I was skeptical about the quality. Indeed, this mocha is a reasonably good substitute to the heavenly mocha I'm always able to get at the Tully's in downtown Tacoma. Thus, I am pleased and have found a moment of calm in my life this weekend.

Other than waxing lyrical about mochas I've mostly been agonizing over schoolwork. I'm stuck in a bind. Mid-semester I've become completely exhausted by the prospects of what it would actually take to accomplish what I had wanted to in financial planning, and excited by what I could be researching in linguistics. The more committed I become the less I'm able to commit to the homework associated with one of my courses. Withdrawing from the course has potential complications associated with it resulting in further stress. This isn't how I planned that this would go, but it was somewhat foreseeable (I just didn't do the foreseeing).

The rest of the homework is more manageable--it's just math, and I can enjoy that even when it's not the focus of my life. Either way, though, I've been a little stressed about deciding whether to withdraw from my business planning class or to stay in--it feels so much like lying on a weekly basis. Even if I ended up finishing this degree it'd end up feeling that way, I think. The professor is really looking for a certain type of business plan to emerge which hasn't so far allowed for much deviation from the norm. Considering that the norm has been to design the standard planning practice that involves working for high-income and upper-middle-class individuals and families and hasn't used much beyond the standard fee schedules, I'm a little disappointed. I figured that a program initiated by a college that was founded by the YMCA would have had more room for progressive ideas about financial planning than it actually does. Maybe I'm mistaken about the original goals of the YMCA. Or maybe this is why the school and the YMCA aren't actually the same organization anymore.

I'm trying not to be bitter.

I'm also waiting as patiently as possible to find out if I got into the linguistics program. First they said I was admitted, then they said "oh yeah, but only to the school--we're not sure yet if the linguistics department likes or you or not." So I waited. And then Wednesday I got a call from the department head asking for more information. I emailed her back that night and haven't heard anything yet yay or nay.

I did get an admissions letter in the mail, though. From the Graduate School, though, not from the department. It was dated internally as October 5, and postmarked for October 9th, both of which were before I got the call from the linguistics program. I also haven't gotten any email back from them at all, and according to the letter I'm supposed to be expecting email from them regarding registration (and hopefully more details about my acceptance into the program).

If I don't hear back from them soon, I'll call and see what's up. I'm avoiding it at the moment because the last time I called they got really grouchy with me. I'm just hoping that the linguistics department itself is friendlier. Grouchy administration I can handle--they won't ever by writing my recommendation letters.

I need to sip some more mocha before I write this next paragraph. Okay, better now. My car also broke down mysteriously Thursday night. I was exhausted. Steven was exhausted. And so we decided to go get dinner out somewhere rather than attempt to cook. I was waiting for him outside in the car, and it was idling. I had just driven all the way from the Valley, and so this makes it all a little disconcerting. Steven got into the driver's seat to take over driving and we were sitting there discussing where to go when the car died. He tried to turn it back on and wouldn't go. He tried again and wouldn't go. So we tried to get it into our entirely inconveniently located parking space and failed. So we had it towed. It's still at the mechanic's. Apparently it was an electrical problem and they fixed it as of yesterday, but it also was in serious need of an in-depth (and expensive) tune-up, including desperately needing a new timing belt. Thank goodness the car decided to wait until I had arrived at home to die.

Also, many thanks to Leo, the mechanic who has so far been an angel to me during this whole process, and who called me every step of the way to update me on it. They had narrowed it down to being one of three different parts that could have needed fixing, so he started with the cheapest. He also did the checkup on it that discovered the timing belt issue for free.

I'm rather attached to my car and it's pretty distressing when it's not doing well. I can handle the inconvenience of not having a car for a couple of days, but the car was a gift from my mom. My dad had promised me a car for years and after he died she used some of the money he had left her to buy me this car. It was not a new car, nor was it as expensive as one, but it was in excellent condition and I have developed a bit of an emotional attachment to it. It's taken me between Washington and California safely a couple of times now and it perfectly Erin-sized. It also has a setting on the driver's seat that makes it nicely Steven-sized too, which is just very nice.

On a happier note, though, I've several boxes worth of stuff from Washington to go through now. Dishes and kitchen stuff. Clothes. CD's. Video games. And I also got my first wine club shipment the other day. I like trying out good wines that I've never had before. The first one that I popped open was from Vigna Ladonna--Orange Muscat 2006. Very yummy. A little sweet, a little dry, very flavorful. It would be fun to cook with, but I suspect we'll just drink it all over the next week or two. Probably would be excellent with salmon.

I also got a gym membership. Maybe using that'll counteract my discovery of these almost-Tully's mochas. ;)