Disappointments

I actually got an interview today - you'd think that'd be forward progress, but the fact that my honesty about my availability (i.e. my availability ending for good in two months) lost me what would have been an instant hire actually made everything a little bit worse. It's one of those situations where I feel like I did the right thing, but the fact that I was punished for it made it sting worse. The manager told me in no uncertain terms that if I'd even promise him six months, or anything at all longer than two, he'd have hired me on the spot. There was wine and chocolate at this place, too. Triple loss (I'm totally picturing a banging work-mate party for my 21st birthday right now).

I'll hopefully have an interview with a dog walker this week, though. I was fairly honest about the fact that I knew it was a long shot when I responded to her Craigslist ad, but I think my love for dogs probably attracted her anyway. Plus anyone who can boast living with an Australian Cattle Dog mix is probably worth hiring, I think (hard-headed little brats that they are sometimes). Honestly, if I can't have coffee, dog walking is something of an ideal job for me - I can walk the city, take lots of pictures, and get paid to play with dogs. That's just about perfect. Temp agencies are still on my mind, though - I guess I'll aim for that tomorrow.

Maybe, despite the fact that it annoyed the snot out of me when she said it, I do need to follow my mom's advice and just chill a little bit. Yes, money's going to be really tight. Yes, I'm going to be uncomfortable and frustrated not having a job and not really having anything better to do. But I'm in the most photogenic city in the country, and I'm to the point now where I can actually explore a little bit and have some idea of what to do. I function best (maybe more accurately, function at all) when my time is naturally compartmentalized into work- and leisure-time (heavy on the former, light on the latter), but since that's not really an option right now, then the smart thing to do is to relax and enjoy all the time I have to do . . . stuff.

I wrote some kind of letter of support yesterday for Simon, and to be quite honest, I'm really proud of it. Call me crazy, but I feel like I wrote some really stellar stuff about him - all of which I meant, as you guys know from reading this - and I really hope he gets whatever award it is he's nominated for. And speaking of Simon, I think I'm going to ask him today about the Independent Study option that's on Blackboard under the Media Arts section - it occurred to me that I really don't want to take a totally pointless "Producing for Media Arts" class if I could work closely with one of my favorite professors instead. I just don't want to come off like I only wrote the letter of support to get something out of him. Eh.

My schedule next semester is almost really awesome. Here's my conundrum, though: I really want to take the photography class in the same semester as the lighting class. I could get into the photography class, but it would mean dropping my Chinese film class. One non-Western film class is necessary to graduate in the program, and I was warned that there may not be one the spring semester of my senior year. I'd love to take the narrative class as well, but that one would mean dropping History 109. Which I could take the next semester, but each semester I delay a history means an extra one the next semester. It's like a giant jigsaw puzzle that I didn't plan quite enough in advance for.