I'm in the wrong business, and a call for graduate input.

I live a fair distance from the university. It isn't too bad because the drive is relatively pleasant with rolling back roads with picturesque landscapes.

Lately I seem to have the luck of being stuck behind some suburbanite mother who believes that "when in doubt, coast with your foot on the brake." This is clearly frustrating when navigating behind said twit and not wanting to wear down my *own* brake pads. This seems to be an epidemic...it feels like probably half of my trips over the last two weeks I'm trapped behind someone who has to change out their brakes once a year...maybe more.

Maybe I'm too analytical. Maybe people actually think "foot on brake pedal, car magically slows down/ stops." Noooo people. If you coast down a hill with your foot on the brakes, even slightly, that is going to wear the pads down. Maybe some of these people are terrified of driving. Who knows.

All I know is that I'm in the wrong business....I should open my own damn auto shop which only sells brake pads. I'll even have those frequent customer cards for the neurotic coasting&braking types. "Buy more than two sets of brake pads within a year, and get the next set free!" I would make a fortune.

In other news, I really need to contact the graduate admissions offices of the schools I'm thinking of applying to. I *really* need to know how much the GPA affects being accepted. I hope to go for a PhD in research...I have about a year of experience in a lab already under my belt, plus the next following year prior to graduation. I'm hoping that and maybe GRE scores will balance out the non-perfect GPA.

And it isn't that my GPA is horrible, it's fairly good really. But it's not exactly a 4.0. I struggle to get A's all semester and find my efforts thwarted by a 92% after the final, which grants me an -A. After the occasional B or B+ in the odd class or two, it really becomes difficult to pull the GPA up.

So, for those who may stumble across this, if you have any words of wisdom regarding graduate acceptance and all the trials that go with that, please feel free to comment.