Comparative Art Museums

Dear Ashley,

This is totally random (well, not totally) but the Phila Art Museum looks just like the Budapest Fine Art Museum. This is not my picture, I stole borrowed it from google, but here's the Phila Museum.

Slightly more steps, but the basic architecture was strikingly similar. I said to Ben "Look at this! It's just like the one here!"

And he replied: "That's 'cause I've been gaslighting you both. She's really been right here in Philly the whole time."

I don't believe him. Philly's got some pretty parts, but it's not nearly as pretty as Europe. I love your apartment building! It does look like it came straight out of the lower East side. (The somewhat mythic lower east side of things like Rent, anyway. I've been reading stuff lately about how that neighborhood has gone completely and dangerously ghetto, it's nothing like it used to be anymore, which is sad.)

I really appreciate your insight into my college choices. I think Cornell is still my number one, because more research revealed that they push you to be out in five years, and that it's very job centered. And while they want you to be proficient in your primary language going in, there are no class requirements, which both other schools have. At Cornell I feel like they treat you like a grad student, and basically, you have a committee of supervising faculty to guide you, but you get to do whatever you want from the start without having to go through the "you have to take one medieval, one renaissance, one romantic class, etc." That appeals to me, because I've done all that in my undergrad, and none of those periods in English lit are really my thing, which is why I'm turning to the more broad CompLit field.

*sigh.* We'll see. I'm overwhelmed, so I haven't done more research on UMass or Dartmouth yet, but I will. I think I may need to stock up on chocolate first. Halloween is coming though, so I have an excuse to buy it :) I'm so excited that we'll actually have kids come to the door this year! At home we had exactly 1 trick or treater every year, the same girl, that lived down the road.

I've actually got my costume mostly put together. I'm going as Cosette from Les Mis, and I found the most perfect oversized peasant shirt at the thrift store, and I already have a beret! I borrowed a skirt from my mom, and I plan on buying a handmade broom at Rhinebeck this year anyway, because our plastic one literally falls apart when I try to sweep.

Speaking of Rhinebeck, the gray leftover from your hat, and the teal leftover from my vest was perfect for making myself a pair of mitts to match said vest:


In other news, I've picked up a second job, doing clerical stuff at the accordion shop Ben worked in all summer. They needed someone to do inventory, and manage the ebay listings, to get the shop ready for Christmas. It's an easy enough job, but the shop is a disaster. I spent three days this week just trying to organize and alphabetize the books, to figure out what we need to order, and I'm only half done. Oh well. It guarantees me some extra income for awhile, which is good.

Other than that, nothing too exciting. We're going to see my favorite toddler this weekend, and then next weekend is the Sheep and Wool Festival, so there will be pictures from both, I'm sure. Right now, I think I'm going to stop rambling and try to work on finishing some projects and writing query letters.

Oh! Thank you also for reading my Glen scene. I love how you make everything I write seem so much more profound that I thought it was when I was writing it. Maybe it's just hard to see the connections in one's own work, but I was like "hmmm I kinda like how badass Clare is in this scene." and you were like "I love how it highlights the importance of community and family and ties into the overall theme."

This is why we work so well together. Anyway, really done rambling now. Hope you're having lots of fun adventures and aren't too overworked yet.

-Lizz