R is for Rest, Re-take and Really Good Time

So we got back this afternoon from our little mini-vacation to Tahoe. It was SOOOOO nice. We had comped rooms and food because my husband is a really good gambler (no seriously, we paid not a dime for this entire trip and came home $400 ahead. That's right, paid for nothing. Not a meal, not a room, not a movie. We're high rollers at the penny machines, what can I say?). Connor stayed with my parents-- incidentally, he did not want to come with us when we came to get him, he wanted to stay at my parents' house. I don't know what to think about that-- so Dan and I could reconnect away from home and rest by ourselves. Uninterrupted sleep, watching daytime tv, napping, all of it giving us just a little bit of time to unwind from the last stressful week (or month, or year, but who's really counting). It was great and much needed.

During the trip we were able to really think about the strategy of Dan re-taking the DAT or not. Before we left he made quite a few phone calls to schools to ask if he should re-take the test or not. He got mixed feedback. Some people said his scores were competitive and it wasn't necessary to re-take, some said he should re-take and some said his scores simply did not meet their minimum cut-offs so unless he wanted an immediate rejection, he had no choice but to re-take. So we decided that he will re-take the DAT (on October 20th, for those who are wanting to mark their calendars) but, he won't tell the schools that suggested his scores were already competitive that he is re-taking the test, therefore hoping that they won't put his application on hold until after the DAT (also hoping that he won't get immediate rejections, but that goes without saying). I know this is all a little confusing and feel free to skip these parts that talk about the DAT I just want to make sure those that want to be informed are informed. So anyway, we decide he is going to re-take the DAT and then yesterday, he got a really encouraging phone call from UOP. First of all, THEY CALLED HIM, to ask him what his DAT scores were. For a school that gets at least 4000 applicants, I'm guessing they don't just pick up the phone and call one of them unless they are pretty interested. So Dan calls the gal back and has about a 15 minute conversation with her and in this conversation she repeatedly asks him questions about stuff in his application and makes comments about stuff in his application. Mind you, the application is about 15 pages long so she would have had to read pretty deep into it to comment on the stuff she was. She also told him the rest of his application was really competitive. Anyway, she tells him to re-take the test, to boost two of his scores by two points (totally doable) and to call her back right after he takes the DAT with his new scores and his mid-semester grades. It was pretty positive and boosted his confidence a lot. Now he's pretty motivated to do really well on the DAT and get into UOP. Whatever it takes huh?

Back to the trip, we had SO much fun. Turns out this guy I'm married to is really fun to hang out with. Go figure! We gambled quite a lot and found a new love for penny slots. It was just really great to spend time together, without real life stuff to deal with. Now that we're back I'm having a hard time re-adjusting, even though we were only gone for a few days. I think I needed a longer break. Ah well, it was great while it lasted.

Loves to all.