The Long Day Is Over

The drive to Virginia took a lot more out of me than any other drive has in the past. A 12-hour drive turned into a 14-hour drive due to stopping at seemingly every rest stop to rest. Before I hit Memphis I ended up getting pulled over, figures. For the first time in my life...the policeman let me off! *whew* That was a close one. Following that interchange I decided that 55 wasn't really that bad of a speed after all and neither were the other limits throughout the way.

I arrived about 1:15 in the afternoon and met with the girls that were nice enough to let me stay with them. They had some people over and we just hung out. Sunday's church was different, seeing as I'm not accustomed to singles wards. Sunday we played chicken foot dominoes before I left for the "Meet & Greet" with all the Ph.D. students. The party was pretty laid back. I met both of the Mormons in the program and felt a little better to learn that they typically had one member in every cohort. A little discouraged by other interviewees' resumes and alumnus status (Purdue, Pepperdine, Northwestern, etc.) but it was one of those fleeting freak-outs.

While at the party I started feeling a little light-headed and dizzy. I thought it was because I hadn't had dinner, so I ate. By the time I got back to the apartment, I was full-on flu. Really great timing. Limited sleep and just feeling gross made it difficult to believe I was going to make it to the interviews today.

By 7:45 I thought about calling the director to see what my options were, but I knew that really wasn't an option for me, so I sucked it up and went at the risk of throwing up while there. Everyone was really understanding about me being sick and one of my fellow interviewees made it her personal responsibility to take care of me all day which was very nice.

The way the interviews were set up was that three or four interviewees would meet with one of the four professors for half an hour and then they would switch. It just so happened that I was paired with my caregiver the entire day which was odd because no other group shared the same members each time.

I decided that trying to drive through the night, with the flu, wasn't the smartest idea so I'm still in Virginia and plan on heading back to Harding in the morning after meeting with a couple potential roommates. Before we left, they asked us to give them our contact information for the next 48 hours...so I suppose I'll be posting again in two days to let you know the good news.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!