Newsy Week.

1. I got an email message from the U.T. financial aid office on Thursday with my financial aid package. I had imagined a letter, so the email threw me, and I had to stare at it for a while before I was certain it really meant what it said. Ta-da!

It's a generous package too, quite a bit of grant money, including a Pell grant, and two grants from the State of Texas. Using my rudimentary and marginally reliable math skills, I figured out that I can probably get by once school starts only working a few hours a week, or possibly doing an odd job here and there, to make a little extra money to help pay my credit card bills.

2. I'm in another drug trial this weekend. I checked in this afternoon. I'm actually an "alternate" subject, which means that if everything goes well with all the regular subjects, I will be sent home tomorrow morning. So, I'm praying for one of them to have high blood pressure in the morning or get caught having sex in the bathroom tonight. Just kidding.

I'm in the same facility as before but a different section. We're in a big room like an old-fashioned hospital ward with beds lined up against opposite walls. All our procedures will be done in our beds (ECGs and blood draws), rather than the other times where there's been a big procedure room and separate dorms with bunk beds. I like it better, it's not quite as chaotic and this sleeping arrangement feels better. Those little dorms rooms were so close and airless.

If I get sent home tomorrow, I'll only make $75, instead of $900 for the whole weekend. But, even more than the money, the best thing about being able to do the whole study is that I can stop trying to get into a study for a while, I can smoke some pot (if I can find any) for the next couple of weeks. If I don't get in this study, I have to keep at it until I do one!