it has been a trial, certainly. and thanks for the well-wishes!!

as for the career, i am in a huge dilemma about my capstone courses. the integrative courses would be easy, and would leave my last semester wide-open. the thesis, much more difficult, would be great as a job application trump card, but i'm afraid that taking it would set myself up for failure, since i'm weak on self-motivation and that's one of the major foci of the thesis. *headdesk* big carrot, big stick. there are other pros/cons, but those are the biggest.