The Universe is For Me, or Against Me, I'm not Really Sure

So after all that babbling yesterday, I heard from two more schools today. One, the other California school, doesn't want me. The other, however, DOES. And there's still one more school that has yet to accept or reject me, but since it's the weakest program (still a good program, but the weakest) there's no way I'd go there unless they gave me a financial aid offer and neither of the other schools did. So it's down to a decision between two schools. Fortunately, this is a very pleasant dilemma to have, and I'm grateful to have two options because it means the fact that I got into the up-North school wasn't just a fluke, I really am a qualified candidate, apparently. I feel more confident now that I have two schools to choose from. Incidentally, I also feel more confident having gotten rejection letters, too. I know that sounds silly, but when I got into college and then got into an MA program, I got nothing but acceptance letters, which left me with the idea that ANYONE can get into those programs and do what I'm doing. Which isn't true, I know that, but that's what it felt like. But now, having gotten both acceptance and rejection letters, for the first time in my life I'm really thrilled at having been accepted anywhere because I realize that it actually is pretty difficult to get into a Ph.D. program, much less one of your top choice Ph.D. programs. So yes, it's flattering, and it's a great decision to have to make, but still, I HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION.
The guy who wrote me from School #2 today wrote an extremely flattering letter that basically said, in not so many words "We really want you, we're going to give you a financial aid package that matches our extreme enthusiasm for your application, please don't accept the other offer without hearing ours first". And that's all fine and good, except that they don't think they'll be able to officially present their financial aid offer until April 12th, which is exactly four days before I need to declare my intention at School #1. Not a lot of time for decision-making. The other problem is that School #1 has yet to present their financial aid offer, either. I wrote to School #1 today, now that I have another card to play, and told them that I have another offer and would really like to be able to consider both programs--including their financial aid offers--side by side so that I can make a truly informed decision. So I'm hoping that now school #1 will either get on the ball and give me my financial aid offer ASAP, or that they'll let me wait on accepting or declining their offer of admission until they have had a chance to give me my financial aid offer.
And then I'm hoping one offer is substantially better than the other, because otherwise I seriously don't know how I'm going to make this decision. I'm trying not to freak out about it yet and to just be thankful that by this time next week I should know for sure where I'm going, but still. I hate making major life-changing decisions, especially in this case where I've never actually visited either school and can't make a decision based on gut instincts, which is what I usually do.

Anyway, wish me luck in the decision-making process. I'm off to Houston/Galveston for the weekend with Mandi tomorrow. We're spending Friday night in Houston to hang out with Matthew and one of Mandi's friends and then I'm going home with Mandi on Saturday to meet her mom and spend Easter there, hopefully on the beach if it doesn't get too cold this weekend. It should be fun. So long until I get back.