Fleas and the MFA Monster

The number of inhabitants of my apartment has seen a decided spike in the last three weeks, to a now estimated one thousand living creatures. Broken down by species, that's two human beings, two felines, and 996 fleas.

I'm not a dirty dirty girl! The vacuum is my altar! The flea comb is my rosary! I regularly terrorize the cats with these two items in an effort to decimate the flea population, including their tiny salt-crystal eggs. Poor Happy has earned the nickname Crusty, because she's scratched herself to scabs. Both cats have developed the peculiarly smart habit of avoiding floors all over the apartment. Happy is the most zealous in this pursuit, careening from say, the kitchen stool across the living room and scrambling up the arm of the couch to a high table, her next ivory tower. Reports around town are that it's been a worse than usual flea season, and I take comfort in knowing that everyone else with pets is also living in a den of parasites. Wait, that's not comforting at all.

Anyway, ankles itching, I have begun the full transformation into an MFA monster right here in my own flea nursery. I posted a list of schools recently, then deleted it, and have a slightly different list now. Okay okay I'll post it again.

UT Austin
U North Carolina Greensboro
U Florida
UNH
UMass
U Illinois, Urbana-Champagne
UC Irvine
U Oregon
Washington U St. Louis
U Alabama
Syracuse
U Wisconsin-Madison
U Michigan
Indiana U

Five of the fourteen programs are more competitive than Harvard Medical school, i.e. with acceptance rates lower than three percent. None has an acceptance rate above nine percent. Am I crazy? No, I'm just an MFA monster.