Late at night...

I really ought to be asleep right now, I know, but I just felt like posting. The internet is a lil' too vortex-like - you can waste almost a whole day in its ethereal grip and have little or nothing to show for it, except the occasional "Huh! That's neat." Like me, today. To be fair, I find I react similarly when playing video games, watching certain TV shows (the currently run ones are thankfully mostly on cable, which I do not have - it's Youtube you need to be cautious of, they have everything MST3K-related), and frequently with books. But today I've been researching wild plants that are suitable for human consumption. Think wild blackberries, which have fascinated me since childhood, or pecans, which grow thick in my neck of the woods. Or the less commonly sought plants (usually termed weeds in the suburban landscape I dwell in) like chickweed, purslane (which I've had in quiche - seasoning needed tweaking, but not bad), etc.
Part of what started this is the sudden appearance of what I think may be a trailing dewberry that is living in our backyard on a trial basis - namely, til the berries are ripe and we can see whether they taste good or not. I've always wanted a backyard garden and my current attempts are failing rather miserably due to my vacation (no one picked anything, the lettuce bolted, and the dumb mesclun mix I have doesn't tell you what's in it so I can't tell inedible weeds from salad greens). And the heat down here makes lettuce and peas short-lived anyhow. So maybe something a little more wild and native would succeed better? Even my tomato looks like it's close to death. And the attention I'm *supposed* to be paying to my studies is, of course, another story.
Went to an information meeting for the school I'd like to attend for my graduate degree and came to a few conclusions:

• I really need to graduate soon. This is just going to get harder as time wears on. I am having a really hard time caring about one of my classes just now, though, so I need to find a solution fast (which will need to include someone handy with a residential area I can put together a landscape portfolio for)
• I can't afford school until I have a car, because I will need to drive to the program headquarters for the in-person portions of class (theirs is a blended distance program).
• I need to be able to DRIVE said car, in busy-crazy-insane-frightening city traffic.
  
• I have to find a way to pay for school.
• I need to take the GRE and possibly some other test.
• I can't afford to live away from home during this process and the schooling itself.
• And in some ways, the worst thought of all: I will have to go through the misery that is FAFSA again.
  

It's like the transition from high school to college, only much less fun.
Contemplative,
Guin