Thursday, February 23, 2017

Day 160: Gotta keep my head up.

Hi readers,

Not a very eventful week-ish since my last missive. I received rejection notices from two more schools, which was not exactly easy to deal with. I still have two programs left to hear from at the time of this writing, but it's very dismaying to not even get interview requests or waitlist offers. But I can't let it get me down--I still conducted an interview this week for my research and have a few pieces in the publishing pipeline, so I am keeping busy outside from my normal teaching work.

On the other hand, someone in my program linked me to this amazing website, which has the power to summon my middle-school self back from the past where she belongs in order to listen to Evanescence mashed up with Kanye West, just because I can!
One of the eight million tee shirts (conservative estimate) I've ordered in the last month arrived! Pretty comfy, great reminder of the event and of the fight ahead, and I love the design. Win-win-win.
This past weekend, I actually made a new friend! (Kind of?) One of the students in my program hosted a little taco-making party at her apartment, and so we all bundled over to her place. One of the other attendees brought a visiting friend from her alma mater who had also studied art history, so after monopolizing his time for a solid hour talking about people we knew in common from his school/my internships, and then I invited myself to his Kunsthistorisches Museum visit the following morning. It's always so great to be able to talk to someone about art who isn't evaluating me for a grade or even competing with me (even though my cohort at Swarthmore didn't have that atmosphere at all). So the next morning, we met at the museum and made lots of educated jokes and intelligent conversation about the Old Masters, which was just a fun way to pass the time. I don't know if I will end up running into him again, but, again, it was just great to be able to talk about art with a colleague with a similar level of knowledge.
Usually museums don't put exclamation points in these notices. They're so contrite! I forgive you!!
This drapery-carving skill is unfair! I almost drooled!! 
Okay, when I saw this Titian from across the room, I did literally feel myself salivate because of how gorgeous the color and texture is. It's like Stendhal Syndrome but... in my mouth...
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8668/16195670507_aac175a653_b.jpg)
I just liked his facial expression. And the fact that his head is all stretched-out like a cartoon. I think if Squidward Tentacles was a man from Ancient Rome, he'd have looked like this.
I also went to see the Lego Batman movie, which I found very cute, if very unnecessary. The original Lego Movie was so good because it used the functionality of Lego toys directly as thematic material: the problems in the movie were solved by manifesting the creativity necessary in building with Lego blocks, whereas Lego Batman is fun, but also just Lego Batman. I did almost cry towards the end, but only because Lego Robin is really, really adorable, and of course the movie provided plenty of laughs at Batman's expense, which is always a smart choice.

Miscellany of the week:
This photo inclusion is not an endorsement of this candidate. I just love that this is a site (and a platform) that exist.
I need to do a special post with all of the funny signs I see around Vienna's shops, because this one was pretty great.
Photo of a photo from the TU Ball. Now I just need to figure out where to wear my dress when I'm back home...
If you've made it far down the post: if you want to express your love for me, skip the books from Amazon and just please send me good vibes so I get into graduate school. I would really appreciate it, because the rejections are not pleasant to receive.

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