What can I say? (Too little, too late...)

I missed the deadline by 95 minutes.

I struggled with formatting my application. I don't have pdf forms software, which would have allowed me to just add my answers to the existing document and save it as a new pdf. I had to print the application, figure out where to put my answers, create a document and mess with the positioning. Over and over and over. Then I had to print them onto copies of the form.

I finished at 11:52 MST on the last day of the application period. It was already 3:00 a.m. in D.C. I had scanned the pages, but I wanted to include additional information in an addendum, and I had already referred to it in the application. It was too late to just omit it.

It took me 90 minutes, some of it stupid formatting stuff. (MS Word can be so weird!)

I sent it off anyway, with a plea that it be considered in spite of being late.

We'll see.

I'm going to bed. A friend will be here in eight hours to help with heavy housework.

Update, three minutes later: I received an auto-reply to my application email. It's hopeless. I was so focused on and so frustrated by creating the video and formatting the application that I missed a requirement.

In my defense, the application requirements are listed in three different places, and the list is different in each place. I complied with the requirements on page one of the application. There's an additional requirement in the list on page four, and yet another on the web site.

Since Thursday afternoon I have done little but work on this application. It's not entirely wasted; as I answered the questions and prepared an addendum I gained some insights, and I'm very happy with the way I expressed some things. When the class is offered again I can reuse the material.

But it won't be this year, and I was really looking forward to it, for many reasons.

Another update. I just can't leave this alone. I am so frustrated and disappointed. My original plan had been to shoot the video on Friday. I realized that I couldn't be ready, so we rescheduled to Monday. I hoped to submit my application on Monday, but knew that I still had Tuesday as a backup plan. We shot the video, and it took me hours to discover that it was unusable, and we had to start over. If I had been able to use Monday's video I would have been able to spend Tuesday on the application, taking my time, reading the requirements, letting it rest and reviewing it with fresh eyes. Instead I have spent the last eighteen hours trying to avert a disaster. Unsuccessfully.