After All of That--A Bit of Hope

As my last post indicated, it's been a long month. And this week, the sun returned and everything brightened.

Many of my grad school application fears have been allayed (thanks Mom & Aubrey). I'm still running late, but just have to get this stuff done and talk to some profs about recommendations. And I just found out that the head of my current English department knows the head of my prospective English department. When I say "know," what I mean "is really good friends with." She has offered to put in a good word.

Also, Corey held auditions this week for his directing thesis. Dozens of people showed up because it's Corey, and it's dark comedy, and who doesn't want a piece of that? Auditions were a lot of fun already (I love reading plays aloud), but I'm excited to report that I've been cast as Helen!!! She is the (truly) crazy mother, who is definitely not cut out for parenthood. It's an awesome role, and I will work my hardest to do the part justice.

Related news: Corey won the Student Comedy Competition and opened for the visiting stand-up comedian today. And he truly kicked ass. And the people loved it. And God said that was good.

Still, after all of the week's excitement, nothing was as surprising as what I found in my living room on Thursday: life.

I have a curly willow tree, left over from a botanical arrangement from an art gallery's inaugural exhibition. It is a branch. It was chopped at the stem. It had no reason to live, despite sitting in a vase of water for three weeks and spitting out the tiniest little root.

The art gallery director swore it would grow, a promise I held onto desperately, even as a deathly brown dryness crept down the green branch. Yet, on Thursday, this is what I found:
Leaves! Ergo, life!

And my suitemates laughed at it.

There is hope for all things.