Here's an update for you:

1. I received my acceptance letter from Mary Washington today. I will be enrolled in Graduate classes beginning in January. I am very excited and relieved. I have been waiting a long time to hear about this.

2. I had my orientation for my tutoring job this afternoon. The school is in the inner city and has a lot of problems. When I arrived at the school, they were on 'lockdown'. There was apparently a large fight in the cafeteria at lunch-time and the police were there arresting kids. I am going to try my best, but it is definitely going to be a challenge. The neighborhood has a gang problem, and the members of the gangs attend the school. This, not surprisingly, causes many problems. Fortunately I am going to be teaching 9th grade so the problems should be less than if I was instructing an older grade. I am excited, but intimidated, and after today I must admit I am fairly frightened. If anything happens where I feel that my safety is in jeopardy, I am out of there. I am going to be well compensated, but not well enough to endanger myself. This may seem overly pesimistic but in fact its realistic. With all the problems that they have you would think that they would have metal detectors, but they don't.