Back from Beyond

THERE IS ANOTHER: A Sunday stop at our mailbox brought a double dose of good news. "There's a purple envelope in there!" I told CJ as I peered in the box.

We pulled it out and the envelope was from the University of Washington Tacoma. The flap had "CONGRATULATIONS" in all caps.  That was encouraging.

Sure 'nuff, he opened it up and there was a letter letting him know he'd been accepted for admission for the school year starting this September. 

That was really good news, because CJ is keenly interested in attending UW-Tacoma, as they have a history major and a museum studies minor.

There was also a nondescript #10 (business) envelope from Eastern Washington University in the box. CJ opened that up and found a letter letting him know he'd been awarded a (renewable!) $3,000 annual scholarship, should he choose to attend there. (He's looking at the EWU at Bellevue College program.)  That was some nice news.

So now, he's heard from every school he applied to, and received a 'yes' from each. Now, we wait for financial aid/assistance offers from each. We're not sure when those will show up, but hopefully sooner rather than later. It would be nice if he could make a decision.

One thing I did toward that decision day end today was make a spreadsheet listing his five options, the tuition rate there, financial aid offers, scholarships offers, location and what getting there would look like, degree programs he's interested in at each, and notes. It took me about three hours to chase down and compile all that info, but it's good to have it all in one place.

DOWN TIME: There was a dearth of posts last week, in large part because I made the terrible mistake of getting a flu shot and the shingles vaccine on the same day.

I don't think it was the flu shot that did me in. I've never had a reaction to one before. But that shingles vax, yowza. I had the immunization on Wednesday, and Thursday morning woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a truck. I started Googling side effects of the shingles vaccine on the Shingrix site.

Check, check, check, check, check, check and check. I had ALL the things. Bummer. Thursday is a blur. Friday I was still puny. By Saturday I was pretty OK. It would have been good to have that information about the side effects before I got the shot, because I'm here to tell you, if I had to work on Thursday, I would not have been able to, no way.

SNACK PACK: Today's special delivery was a box full of treats from South Africa.

The gift was part of a SnackCrate subscription Kennedy got for CJ for Christmas. CJ is looking forward to a taste of South Africa, a destination a little more than 10,000 miles away from us, as the crow flies.

RED PLANET READY: We're just a couple of weeks away from a really big deal, spaceflight wise. NASA's latest mission to Mars is set to touch down on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021, with a rover named Perseverance on board. "This robotic astrobiologist will search for signs of ancient life, pave the way for human exploration, and collect rock and soil samples for future return to Earth," NASA noted in a press release.

                    Illustration: NASA

NASA is inviting people to a virtual NASA Social event due to track the mission's big milestone. It happens on Thursday, February 18, from 11:15 AM to 1:30 PM PST. To participate, you can follow this link: https://fb.me/e/cKrbdHVXG  It takes you to a Facebook page where you can ask questions and get answers from NASA experts, connect with other space enthusiasts, watch live as Perseverance lands, and you even get a NASA social badge to share online or print out.