"I wanna go back to Ohio State, / To old Columbus-town"

As of just a few minutes ago, I have officially made my decision regarding the next phase of my life: next fall I'll be a first-year Creative Writing grad student at The Ohio State University.  I'm very glad that I wrote to LSU first, because after I sent that email I was left with a sick feeling in my stomach: I know it was the right decision for me, but I still HATE to burn bridges, and I HATE leaving people behind.  Luckily the email to the folks at OSU helped me to regain my good feeling about this, as I took the time to thank them for their involvement and interest throughout this process, which in turn reminded me of the exact reasons for my choice.

(Go Bucks.)

My doings today...

My camera's sick :(  The most annoying thing is that I honestly don't know why.  It worked fine in Columbus, and then today I tried to take some pictures of Phoebs and general outdoorsy stuff, and... the LCD screen is wacked.  It just displays pure white, no matter what I do.  Luckily it's still under warranty, so I just have to pay to ship it to (of all places) Laredo, but it's still annoying.  Bah.

Anyway, I've been moderately productive today.  Made some frijoles a la charra, which really could have been better... the pintos have been languishing in their container for multiple years now, so they're a little less than wonderful.  I mean, yes, dried beans will keep for ever, and will stay edible.  They won't however, be at their prime.  In addition, these beans were a little darker than I like for frijoles a la charra; I like the nice, light, pink beans.  They have a more appropriate flavor and color for the dish.  And I should probably have used salt pork or ham, not bacon (or maybe in addition to bacon, in the case of ham).  I dunno, I'll keep experimenting.  The current batch is still quite tasty, just not perfect.  [Sorry, no food porn today, thanks to sad panda camera.]  Also cleaned my room, which has been pretty much a shambles since I finished up my committee draft, like, 3 weeks ago.