So busy just APPLYING to school. I'm not even IN yet and I am having a hard time stealing away to write for fun on mah blahg. This does not bode well...
* I haven't applied for school in 20 years but I am comforted by the fact that the protocol reminds me very much of the military. Every task that you think will be hard to accomplish actually turns out to be really easy (ordering a transcript took 3 minutes - online! Technology is great.) and everything that should be easy is a bit of a cluster**** (i.e. my online application is SO READY to be submitted -- now, if only the school would update the drop down menu so I can indicate that I want to begin school in Jan 2012...)
* I am making the right choice. I was a wee bit intimidated by the admissions essay request, which was basically: "Sooooo tell us about yourself in one to five pages, no less than 500 words". How in the world can I write something impressively erudite enough to get into grad school with a writing prompt THAT broad? I put it off for D-A-Y-S (twitter was SUCH a good time waster) until I couldn't put it off anymore (see: Qwitter) and once I buckled down and fashioned a little outline for myself, I wrote that stinkin' essay in one hour flat. And it was FUN. So, I can do this...
*...but not without proving I don't have cooties first? Even though my program is exclusively online (that's the BEAUTY of it) I still have to comply with NY State law and prove, as a student, that I have had my MMR vaccinations. PLURAL.
Let me tell you a little more about THAT: for someone who is about to turn thirty-cough-cough, my medical records are spotty at best. I never get sick enough to require a doctor. I've never been a patient in a hospital. How did I get this far in life without a significant medical paper trail?
First of all, I don't HAVE any pediatric records readily available. I suppose I could dig, but my pediatrician passed away many, many years ago and I have no idea where to begin looking. I am assuming I would have to seriously diiiiiiiig. My mom was all, "Oh honey, you had an MMR shot - the documentation is in your baby book" -- which, yes and no. She wrote the date of one MMR shot. Next to it she wrote:
"Horrible reaction! Hives for a week!"
So there's that.
Second, I had to get a primary care physician in order to complete the school immunization form. I have never had a regular doctor in my entire adult life. So, I got a referral from a friend. I saw him today and I explained,
"...I need to get this shot? But I don't want this shot because I understand it's a series of shots?"
He was all,
"I can't count the one shot you had you had as a baby because there's no doctor signature next to the date. However, I want to avoid giving you the shots, if possible, due to the documentation of the reaction. You must have been cleared as immune at some point in your life -- how did you get this far in life without running into this before? Didn't you have to take a physical before starting college?"
And I was all,
"I KNOW. I vaguely remember a "Do-You-Have-A-Pulse...Great" physical in the campus clinic, but don't you think I'd remember shots? Plural? That seems a little traumatic to me...and trust me, doc, I'M AN ACTRESS. I'd remember getting shots!"
So the only thing he can think is that at some point a blood test was run (My ENT ran extensive allergy testing when I was in high school. There. That's my one medical thing. I had chronic sinusitis and it was interfering with my musical theater career!) and it happened to be in my files and showed that I was immune to measels, mumps and rubella. So no one at the health clinic on campus felt the need to bother me about the shots.
Of course, I have NO IDEA where any of that paper work is now, twenty years later. So my (new!) doc just decided to run another blood test. Hopefully, no shots for me. I should know by Friday.
* Oh! One more thing: I hope I actually graduated in 1996? Because I walked in a graduation ceremony, but the very next day I was on a plane to NYC and I never looked back. I never even picked up my diploma. When I was arranging for a transcript to be sent to my new my school, I also ordered one for myself because I can't squelch this niggling fear that I didn't finish all my classes. Fingers crossed. I will also know this by Friday. Hurrah?
