Rejection Shmejection

Yup not the most upbeat title. Got a rejection from a fellowship for which I'd applied so today was kind of a bummer. If this was last year, I'd probably have ranted, obsessed, etc with almost all of my close friends by now. But I guess 2007 marks the beginning of growing up? So here's what I did after I found out:

1. Felt bummed. Shared the news with my parents, my dissertation committee chair, and two friends. All of whom were very supportive and didn't let me wallow or obsess - thanks :-).
2. Obsessed for maybe 20 minutes. Hmm okay more like dwelled. Unfortunately I got distracted from my writing goal for today but I did get most of it done.
3. Decided to take the afternoon off.
4. Bubble baths rock, especially if you shift your audio-listening equipment to the bathroom. Candles can be soothing.
5. Afternoon naps tie with bubble baths.
6. Had enough of bumming around and needed to do something else that wasn't remotely connected to the academic part of my life.
7. Made dark chocolate truffles. Probably even more soothing than either #4 or #5....something I hadn't expected. Watched a movie while I made them...if anyone wants to know which one, it was Dhoom: 2. Yes I love that film (post on that some other time).
8. Reorganized my closet and the side-shelves in the refrigerator.
9. Retail therapy - a trip to Origins and a local CD store for the soundtrack of a new film that was released either today or yesterday (which is a bit blah but who cares).
10. Cooked dinner....stir-fry with chicken and mixed veggies....the highlight though was the sauce even if I do sound immodest...the base was apricot preserves. Nopes I had no clue what I was doing. Why apricot preserves then? Apricot sounds like it should be in Chinese food but, more importantly, it was almost finished and I really needed to get rid of one bottle to have the refrigerator shelf look organized and very ad-like..somehow that seemed like something to aspire for at that time.

I think this worked out much better than ranting, obsessing, and wallowing....hmm maybe I could call the combination rantsessow? This way there was none of that negative energy consuming my entire day. And it was a good reminder of the fact that I have other hats to wear than simply the professional/academic one. I like that. I feel happy...not ecstatic necessarily but calm. No sense of impending doom on the professional/academic front - I guess I've (finally!) grown up. I feel like Martin Sheen's character on "The West Wing"....I forget which episode it was but there was one in which they encountered one obstacle after another...very rough...but the last scene shows him saying "next" and going about his business. That's pretty much how I feel.

Now I'm off to take a stab at writing so that I've met my goal for today. Next :-)!