Life is going pretty good so far. I like that the gym I'm signed up in is walking distance from the house and my membership is prepaid for the year. I've been making an effort to go regularly. In the past week, I've been there three times and on other days I've still tried to go out walking or do some physical activity at home.

I have been slacking a bit on studying, although it's kind of a hard test to study for because of the scope of what can appear on there. I've studied the 50 most common GRE words, and quite a few besides that (I have flashcards and such). I'm going to write a few timed practice essays and work on some of the reading comprehension samples. I don't have much hope for my mathematical ability, but the math section is multiple choice, thankfully.

Midnight is getting more used to the house. Sadly, Isis and Bastet are not getting anymore used to Midnight, and they're even trying to bully her a little. O_o Which is kind of funny considering that Midnight could very easily beat them up if she wanted to, and has actually been very, very good with them since she knows she's the new cat in their territory.

Phew! Although there will still be plenty of unpacking to do, I am glad to say that I won't have to be doing any cleaning and moving tomorrow. This is good. My arms, legs, neck and back currently hate me.

I'm at my parents' place in Brampton, staying for about the next year.

Midnight is here now. She's kind of freaking out and has been hiding under my bed (I think she likes my room best so far because at least the scents are mostly familiar to her here). I've given her food under the bed for today, and I might have to bring her litterbox into my room for today. Blech. At least it's just been changed.

Isis and Bastet promptly greeted Midnight with a hiss when I first brought her in, but they're at least not handling it any worse than we really expected. Mom's keeping the girls in her room with her while she reads for the evening so that if Midnight does explore, it won't be in a hostile environment just yet.


With the GRE looming on the horizon (September 15th), I'm not going to put too much effort into job hunting just yet. I'll put my name into some job agencies, and I'll check around local offices. I'm going to also call the Ontario Disability Support office to investigate what I have to do to get myself identified as a person with a medical disability that is able to work...but that needs certain accommodations. The key ones are a) a job that will allow me to sit nearly the whole time, and b) I have to be allowed to eat small amounts of food regularly.

Worked out yesterday. Also, booked the GRE general test. Hopefully I will do better this time around now that I know what to expect. I have a better idea of how to study for it, anyhow.

I should probably check the requirements for other universities I'm thinking of applying to, to see if they require the subject test. I really hope not. The subject test is more of a pain in the ass than the general test.

Overcast weather makes me amazingly lethargic.

I'm going to see Iron Man 2 tonight, finally. I never got to see How to Tame Your Dragon in theatres, so I didn't want to miss seeing this one in theatres, too.

@__@ Oh man. Studying for the GRE subject test is driving me BONKERS. I think part of it is a sense of futility - I've been informed that the letters of acceptance already went out before I even had the chance to submit my test scores. So the only way I'm getting in to the only place I haven't been rejected from is if there aren't many people on the waiting list and some of the accepted people decline or fail to reply by April 15th.

Well, fuck. I did account for the possibility of not getting into any grad programs when I was planning things out, but that does mean plans A, B, and C are shot now, and D is more than likely shot, too.


I'm going to have to focus on getting my health under control, studying to take the GRE general test again (I already know I do need better scores there)...and if my scores aren't good enough on the subject test I'll have to take that again too.

The GRE book says that at least a year of preparation in advance is required for doing the GRE and getting into grad school. What pisses me off is that none of my university course advisors even fucking MENTIONED the GRE or how much preparation had to go into taking it. I believe in personal responsibility and all...but considering that these are people that I made appointments with for advice on how to achieve specific academic goals, and I explained that I wanted to get into grad school, I really think they should have bloody well mentioned this stuff during my appointments with them. >_< At the very least, they should know what the requirements are for their own university's grad programs.

ARGH.

I registered for the GRE subject test today. My poor pocketbook. $189 for the general test, and now $157 for the subject test. *weeps*

Still, I'm glad to have it done. Some, but not all of the programs I'm applying for require the subject test. The only thing that sucks bigtime is that they only do 3 tests for the entire year, and the only test available was the one that's past my application deadlines. Still, if I don't get in, I'll just reapply the following year. No biggie. Financially annoying to be sure (since on top of the test scores, I have to pay roughly $85-$100 to apply to each of the three grad schools I'm applying to) but not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

I've decided to not bother with applying to the University of Toronto's grad psych program - mainly because they require multiple tests proving my English language proficiency. I find this stupid, considering that I'd be sending them a transcript of my grades at an English speaking university in not only the same country, but also the same province and city as them. O_o Then there's their graduate prep course - I think it's extremely dumb to require potential applicants to enroll in a course at their university before even getting into it! I mean, WTF. What if you were applying from out of province or worse, out of country?

Positive things: Theresa and Sean's wedding was a lot of fun. I didn't faint during any of the important parts, and we all looked stunning (Theresa in particular since she was the bride and is supposed to outshine everyone). I shall post pictures once I have them. There's some on my digital camera, but I can't remember if it's here or in Brampton at my parents' place (I turned my camera over to my dad and brother for most of the wedding).

Sucktastic things: I have an official diagnosis from the rheumatologist and it's fibromyalgia instead of rheumatoid arthritis. >_< But that's not the shitty part - the shitty part is that I have to deal with this almost entirely naturally because the most prevalent side effect of the medication is light headedness and dizzy spells, and the rheumatologist felt that the medication would aggravate my fainting spells too much for it to be a good option for me. I have to deal with this problem with weak over the counter crap and even then I'm supposed to go light on it so I don't have further complications. I'll probably mostly take it on days I have to work. Also icky: I get to do a shitload of bloodwork just to make sure I don't have cancer or anything else really and truly horrible. I truly hope nothing else is wrong.

Things somewhere in the middle: Apparently I've already started treating myself with some of the natural methods for treating fibromyalgia pain - yoga, and occasionally swimming. My brother is a lifeguard, so he said he'll get me in for free at the pool he guards at every Sunday for the adult swim so I can do some pool therapy. I'm going to have to get cracking on studying for the GRE. I have the books, though, so it's really just a matter of setting aside time when it's quiet. I might have to get in the habit of studying in the school library, since it's a good place to get away from various apartment noise.

I had my first yoga class today. :D The instructor was good about helping everyone push themselves while still working within their bodies' limitations so that nobody hurt themselves. She actually advises against doing yoga from a DVD until you have some experience with it, simply because you can really hurt yourself if you're not aware of how to adjust the poses slightly so that you're not straining yourself. (There are, for example, exercises that can be pretty harsh on the knees if you don't have strong knees, but there are easy ways to adjust)

In my case, it was mainly my wrists that I needed to adjust things for, and it was just a matter of doing a pose so that I rested my weight on my forearms rather than only my hands and wrists.

No word from the rheumatologist yet, but I will call back tomorrow if I don't get a call back today. I had called yesterday, so that's a reasonable amount of time to expect a call back within.


I have booked my general GRE test now. It's going to cost me $189 to write this stupid thing. O_O $50 just to reschedule it if I have to reschedule. However, at least I did manage to get it booked through a customer service agent rather than over the internet, thereby skipping the one step that confused the hell out of me. Even if I think that's a ridiculous cost for the privilege of writing a stressful test, it's booked and done with.