2/2: What I Accomplished Today

1. Went to Costco.

2. Took home the lady who cleans the house and went to Target.

3. Night Elf Druid is now level 43.

4. Reading Angelica for Literary Society. I'm curious where it goes; it's interesting.

5. I'm really not much of a celebrity hound, but several weeks ago magazines were talking of how the Scientologists are courting Will Smith, and several magazines I've read this week have indicated they are succeeding. I hope they're wrong. I have respect for a wide variety of philosophies and religions (including no religion at all, done for reasons other than fashionability or lack of thought), but Scientology is just silly twits helping silly twits remain silly twits. A few months ago, the attempted courtship of the Beckhams failed. If all of these rumors are true (and heaven only knows), that means that, on some level, Posh Spice has greater moral fortitude and integrity than the Fresh Prince. I wouldn't have foreseen that equation. I hope, whatever the truth in these allegations, that Jada beats him with a rock until this nonsense ends.

6. We just learned that a friend of ours showed up at the registration at the nearby university to register for graduate school. No application six months before, no GRE's, no letters of recommendation, no transcripts, no chosen classes or field or profession or even thoughts of a teaching assistantship or fellowship--just waltzed in off the street to register for graduate school like it was a Continuing Ed Photography workshop. Now fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), it was after registration closed, so she was turned away for that reason. Because they gave her the date excuse, I don't really think she knows what a strange, bizarre, inappropriate thing she has done. (I'm wondering how hard the people in the registrar's office laughed when she left. We know what "guess what happened today at work" story many of them told at dinner that night. If this weren't my friend, I'd think this was hilarious, but it is my friend, so it sort of gives me knots in my stomach. For heaven's sake, why didn't she talk to somebody with a clue first?)

Now I have been to grad school. Also, at a time in my life when I was between jobs, it became my job to coordinate law school applications for a friend who was graduating from college. I didn't do any of the work, but I'd tell him what pieces he needed ("I need one personal statement that emphasizes this and another that emphasizes that; I also need paragraphs about your beliefs about X, Y, and Z, and letters from faculty emphasizing A, B, and C"), and he'd get them, and I collated them and prepared his packages for 15 law schools. I don't know how many he was accepted for, but he and his family were very pleased with my work, and the last time I heard, he was an L.A. County ADA, so he did okay, I think.

So I'm trying to decide if I offer to help this friend. I think I could be useful. If this is really a thing she wants to do, I could help her figure out what needs to happen and draw up a timeline and all that stuff.

On the other hand, she hasn't asked for my help. My Co-Vivant says this friend is intimidated by me; I think that's a polite way of saying, "She doesn't have that much respect for me or what I do" (and I think it's interesting that those can apparently be synonyms). There's also some question about how serious she is or whether she really intends to go through with this.

So I'm not going to offer to help just out of the blue. If she asks me for input, of course I'll give some, but I'm not going to volunteer it.

The other sticky part in this situation is that this person is one of the people who was really a condescending jerk about Co-Vivant's birthday party a few months ago, and I've asked myself several times: what action or lack of action of mine indicates true support, respect, and caring for this person? Am I keeping to myself about this because it seems to be what she wants, that she wants to do this, if she does it, on her own without my help, or am I merely being a jerk back? I hope I'm not (Co-Vivant says that the fact that this occurred to me indicates it's not the case, but I think that's too facile).