THE list. And other adventures

It's been a busy week for me. I think I finally found a group I can hang out with. After perusing MeetUp.com, which is much more active out west than it is out east, I have started a weekly climbing routine with the Denver Social Climb--a really great group of 20 and 30 somethings who are (much like everyone else in this city) rarely Colorado natives, and instead have diverse life experiences and hometowns. They're all really nice, and I hope to keep in touch with a few once I get back out east. I'm really proud of myself, since I got my belay test, and did a 5.7 without falling, and attempted a 5.8 falling often. My goal is to lead climb by this time next year--as well as actually gaining the forearm and finger strength to do better bouldering.

In other news, I've been stressing about this upcoming semester, and next summer. I know I need to do some major work on thesis, grad school applications, and GRE studying soon. As a first step, I'm trying desperately to start from square one and remember all of the math I literally have not dealt with since my junior year in high school. Also, I have developed what is a working copy of THE LIST. Narrowed down from over 30 to 18, I'm still hoping to cut about 8 more before December, when applications are due. Thus far, it's daunting.Here's what I have, in no particular order really.

1. Yale University
2. Princeton University
3. Stanford University
4. University of Michigan--Ann Arbor
5. University of Pennsylvania
6. University of California--Berkeley
7. Harvard University
8. University of Chicago
9. Columbia University
10. Cornell University
11. University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill
12. University of Virginia
13. University of Colorado--Boulder
14. Johns Hopkins University
15. University of Wisconsin--Madison
16. Brown University
17. Duke University
18. Rutgers University

Now let's see if I can narrow this down... Wish me luck!