Today has been a bummer day – I didn’t get either of the funding sources I applied to, so it looks like I’ll be paying for my trip myself. I talked to the career advisor & she said that funding is very tight & extremely competitive this year & that she’ll let me know if she hears of anything, but it’s highly unlikely. I’m pretty disappointed. Oh well – I have my ticket, I’m going & it will be an amazing experience.
Last year sometime, Joel came back from walking Wes & said that someone had taken his picture. I didn’t think much of it until today when reading Mark Maynard’s update of The Ypsi Project. The project sounded interesting & I was intrigued if this had anything to do with Joel being photographed. After going through about 13 pages of really wonderful photographs of Ypsilanti and its citizens – there he [& Dan & Wes] was!
Erica [the lovely photographer behind the project], wants to have a gallery showing of about 100 of the portraits. I’m really excited about this opportunity [even though I’ll probably be out of the country for the show itself] & donated a little bit of money to help back the project. You can do the same [& even get some lovely gifts] on their Kickstarter page.
I really love this town & felt inspired to wear my Michigan necklace today. My grandmother got it for me as a Christmas gift this year from City Bird – a Detroit store that features Detroit-themed goods, as well as items from over 50 local designers and artists.
You may remember my 50 Books in 2010 project – one that I’ve fallen ridiculously behind in [the goal is pretty ambitious for a grad student], but I haven’t given up on it completely. Last week I finished reading The Little Book – an interesting time-traveling tale about family, love & Vienna. This weekend I picked up A Canticle for Leibowtiz & I’m over half finished. I also checked out some audiobooks to listen to while riding the bus & working. I’m starting with Gilead by Marilynn Robinson. My cousin-in-law Angie didn’t give it a great review, but I absolutely loved her first book Housekeeping, so I’m willing to give it a shot.
Here’s hoping the rest of the week is up hill from today. If the weather forecast is any indication, I think it will be!
