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I think I have ~~Attention Deficit Disorder~~ the fake disease. I literally have a folder full of writing yet to be posted on this blog, but I can't sit still long enough to finish it because are so many other fascinating things to write about. Plus there's Snood--quite possibly the most addictive game you could ever play. Don't even inhale or you're a gonner.

Yesterday I began spring cleaning. This usually means that you can find me sitting in the corner of my living room somewhere reminiscing over yearbooks, reading old essays, looking at bucked-teeth pictures from the eighth grade, and getting absolutely no cleaning done.

Yesterday I found all my old college acceptance and rejection letters. I was instantly reminded of the nauseating pretension that comes along with the whole college admissions process. Accept me! Accept me!

Even worse was the obsequiously-obtained Harvard recommendation letter I found from author and professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. What Dr. Gates didn't mention in his letter was that I stalked him, hunted him down at a post-book-signing cocktail party and acted like a complete fool just to get a letter that had no chance of getting me into Harvard (thank God). Dr. Gates probably wrote the letter because he felt sorry for me. Heck, I felt sorry for me too.

You know when people ask you to name one of your lowest moments? Well, next to urinating on myself in public, that one is probably number eight on my list. I don't live life in regret, but I cringe at those times in my life when I knew I wasn't being myself.

Enough navel-gazing. I'm working on my columns this morning so I'll be back later today. There's too much to talk about. I need to get back to 5:7 posts. Remind me why having a job is a good thing again?

Even at the time, I remember thinking that the college admission forms were some of the most pretentious pieces of crap I'd ever seen. Hence why I blew it off and only ended up getting into one school. Ah well. One's all you need, really.

Dear Ambra,

Starting in later 1960's, the northeast colleges, particularly, the Ivy League became hedonistic and very leftist. I have a graduate
degree from Brown and saw it change. Traditionally, they had male dorms and female dorms. Girls had to report at certain hours depending on the day of the week. The students
forced coed dorms and could stay out all night! Henry Louis Gates, Jr. had four-hours on PBS for
BHM in 2004. The preview, seemed to suggest Colin Powell
was the main subject. A picture showed him in the
oval office with the President and, I sure by accident, Dr. Rice. Dr. Gates has both endowed
chair plus the chairmanship of department today
at Harvard. If he had wanted you at Harvard, he
could have gotten you admitted. This assumes you had the SAT's, grades, and recommendations. His
daughter goes to Morehouse's sister college.
I was unmarried and dated a girl who attended Harvard. Providence to Cambridge was only a
half-hour drive. The libraries of the Ivies were
fantastic. However, with the internet,times have changed. Remember that Harvard, Brown, Yale, etc
were church affilated for hundreds of years.
Each college had motto in Latin, with Brown's
being "In Deo Speramus" or "In God We Trust".
George Washington liked it and put it on our coins. Harvard's is "Veritas" or "Truth".
James M. Barber

Well, James, I think I ultimately figured out the whole "liberal hedonistic university" on my own through my time at Wesleyan. Funny because Gates's daughter Maggie was a Senior there when I was a freshman. I didn't know his other daughter went to Spelman. I almost went there. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I had. Who knows. But God knew.

I don't throw stuff away easily. This is both good and bad. I was actually glad to find my acceptance/rejection letters. Reminds me where God has brought me from.

Providence to Cambridge was only a
half-hour drive

In what alternate universe? You can't get from Cambridge to Dorchester in a half-hour, and Dorchester is part of Boston.

Sorry to be picking nits, but c'mon, man. It's at least an hour, no matter how fast you're speeding.

Ambra: it is such a comfort to me to know that I'm not the only one for whom "cleaning" turns into a time-sucking nostalgia vortex. That's probably why I do it so infrequently. And yes, the college admissions process still makes me cringe, and I've been out of school for 20+ years now.

I love the little graphic with comment you've added at the top.

Mr. Barber waxes nostalgic:
"Starting in later 1960's, the northeast colleges, particularly, the Ivy League became hedonistic and very leftist. I have a graduate
degree from Brown and saw it change. Traditionally, they had male dorms and female dorms. Girls had to report at certain hours depending on the day of the week. The students
forced coed dorms and could stay out all night!"

Of all the "evidence" you can come up with to prove that colleges have become hedonistic (I don't necessarily disagree)... you come up with co-ed dorms, and treating female students the same as male students?!?!? You think ADULT women in college should be forced to report back to the dorms at a particular hour? But not the men? You think ADULTS should have to obey a curfew? Give me a break.

I actually have ADD (fake though it may be). It was pretty cool how life became manageable through behavior modification and medication. However, everybody has "ADD moments." My husband's is his whole life ;) There's no magic pill for motivation and organization, and it strikes at the best of us at times. Worst comes to worst, you can create a section of half-done posts called the ADD section. Or I can help you procrastinate by having you come over and help me with last Christmas' unfinished stockings :)

Ambra,

All I've got to say is I'm hooked on Snood because of you! I think you owe me an apology for introducing me to such a highly addictive and wildly fun game that has severely limited the use of my brain the past two days.

Enough typing now, I've got to go beat my high score...