Why Won't They Let Me Apply Now?

The annoying thing about applying for grad school for English is that you have to really plan ahead for it. None of the good programs let you apply less than 8 months out. And assembling everything you need to apply takes so long, that you really have to start a year out. So starting now, the earliest I could possibly go to grad school would be 2010. Which doesn't really help me with the whole "I need something to do now" thing. A year ago (when I would have needed to start putting things together in order to apply for admission in 2009) I had a job and I thought I was doing what I wanted to be doing. Now, I want to go back to school, but I'm going to have to find a way to support myself for a year and half before I can actually act on that. And apparently the good colleges all want recommendations from professors, which are difficult to get when you haven't been in school for almost 4 years. Will any of my professors even remember me? This is one of the things that has me procrastinating on this. I shy away from the idea of having to email people I haven't spoken to for 4 years to ask for help. What if they all say no? I'm trying not to let myself get overwhelmed. So I'm starting with baby steps. First, I take the GRE. Get that out of the way and the scores are good for 5 years. Then I put together the writing samples. Then I can work out how to contact people, starting with the graduate advisors at the colleges I'm interested in attending.