Approved!

Last week, I got a really vague letter from the DMV.  It said that my medical paperwork had been approved so I was allowed to drive, but it talked about needing to wait for contact from some guy about the Driver Education School.  When I went at the end of June and took the permit tests, the lady never mentioned that I would need lessons before I could get my permit, presumably because I'm 21.  But the way the letter was worded, my mom and I were left thinking we needed to wait on a phone call before I could go get my permit.  Not to mention, this was a real problem considering I got the letter 2.5 weeks before I leave for school.

Well, I finally decided to call the number on the letter today, some area in the NC DMV headquarters.  I talked to some lady who reviewed what the letter said, because thankfully they scan in copies of every letter sent out, and told me that I didn't have to wait on anything.  I can go get my permit tomorrow!  And thankfully, Chelsea doesn't work until 8 tomorrow, which means we can just drop her off and head straight on to the DMV and Mom will only have to make one trip.  Since I've already taken and passed the tests and it hasn't been 90 days since I did so, all I'll basically have to do is go in and pay and get my picture taken and boom.  I'm so excited!

The rest of the day was spent studying, of course, and thankfully my mom didn't bug me much, aside from the point where I had to clean off her dresser full of tons of mail and a little bit of miscellaneous junk looking for an envelope that had all the documents I will need to present tomorrow to get the permit.  Luckily, we'd put all that together back in June when I expected to get my permit and left it all in said envelope for this very occasion.

Also, I'm super thankful because while I was cleaning out all that mail, I found a letter from Mom's new county/employer and, it turns out, her New Teacher Orientation is only 2 days instead of 3, and Chelsea has already asked for those days off.  So Mom isn't even going to tell Chelsea, because she'll go into a rage if she finds out, and just pretend she's going to the orientation and instead spend a whole day working in her classroom.  So she's not going to try and guilt me into babysitting Blake tomorrow so she can go then.  This means I can wake up super early to go take Chelsea to work and then go to the DMV, and then come back and spend all day studying.

I'll be honest, studying for a test this important while in this much pain has been pretty intense, but the closer the test gets, I'm surprisingly not getting more stressed.  I just have that kind of peace that tells you everything is going to work out okay.  It may not end up the way I expect or want it to, but it will work out okay.  :)

Oh, one more thing.  I finalized the list of grad schools I'm applying to.  Don't ask me which one is my top choice; they're all so good!

- Georgetown
- American University (in DC)
- Johns Hopkins (right outside of DC, but I can do one or both years of the program in Bologna, Italy!!)
- Princeton (which promises that all of its graduate students will graduate debt free)
- NYU
- Columbia (living in NYC and going to either one of these schools for grad school would be pretty much a dream come true)
- University of Liverpool (I heart Liverpool!)
- Oxford (yes, that one, also in the UK)
- American University of Paris (in which I can do a one-year program for an English Master's degree, or do a two-year bilingual program and also earn a degree from the Sorbonne!!!!)
- NC State...because, for some bizarre reason, they have a Master's in International Relations, and everyone needs a safety school ;)

Ten schools, any of which I would be thrilled to attend.  The number seemed crazy to me at first, but Alex told me he applied to eleven law schools, so that made me feel less weird.  Besides, nine of the ten are EXTREMELY competitive schools; I'll be happy if I just get accepted to a few of them!  And Uncle Ed has already promised to, at the very least, take care of all the application fees.  Such an angel, that man.  :)

It's getting real, y'all!