Got a job offer

Monday began cold and slushy with howling pre-dawn winds and freezing rain, though I didn't let that stop me from picking up my buddy Matt and going to the gym. A few hours later, I was in my Theory of Media class when my phone rang. Since I didn't recognize the number, I knew it could only be one thing -- a full-time job offer. And it was!

This is a huge relief because it means that, reglardless of whether I accept, I will likely be living in New York after school. And it certainly means I will not be living on the streets. I asked for two weeks to ponder the offer while I await word from the other company I interviewed with last week. For now I'm just happy a good job is there for me.

The rest of the day was a stamina test and included helping a friend practice casing, working with a group to do one of two Corporate Finance assignments that are due Wednesday and, most interestingly, meeting with Millicent Marcus, an Italian professor whose New Italian Cinema course I want to take next spring. What I hadn't realized prior to our meeting is that the class is not a lecture but a seminar, which means a discussion-based class with, in this case, probably 8-10 students, most of whom are going to be grad students in the film school. That said, she seemed interestesd in my background and said I'm welcome to take the class, with the understanding that I'd be lacking the other students' base of film knowledge.

I can't wait. Back in the mid-'00s when I was just starting to ponder going back to school, I took the GRE because I wanted to get a master's in film studies. I decided it wasn't practical (and don't regret that decision). So I get a kick out of the fact I get to take a couple film studies courses without being in the program. It also happens I took Italian back at Duke, and Prof. Marcus knew two of my prior professors. I haven't retained much Italian though. Actually even while I was taking it, la mia capacità di conversare nel di lingua italiana era eccezionalmente debole. That means "my ability to converse in the Italian language was exceptionally weak." At least according to the online translator I had to use. Anyway, this course looks at Italian movies since 2000 and builds on a class she taught last year, so she gave me that syllabus, and I may try to see some of those movies over winter break while I'm in Florida. The deliverables are two papers; I hope my senioritis isn't my undoing.