At the Ballet

The Delta Gamma New York City Alumni group had a group deal for tickets to see Swan Lake at the New York City Ballet. A group of 10 DG alumnae met up for some delicious sangria at a fancy pre-theater restaurant across the street from Lincoln Center. It was great to chat with sisters from across the country. I was lucky enough to have a sister from Zeta Chi, Emily Bunce, there with me!

The theater is absolutely gorgeous.



The curtain was drawn and I got that excited pre-performance feeling as the orchestra began to play. What an amazing ballet. The music, the dancing, the set, the costumes...it was magical. (I admit I teared up at the end when the prince is left alone without his love and the swan princess is condemned to live out the remainder of her life as a swan instead of as a human).

I was pretty bummed about not having a Valentine - I think the last time I was Valentine-less was in the 9th grade. After that I'd always had a boyfriend to take me out or a crush to surprise me with a date or a girlfriend to lament the holiday with. This year I was totally on my own.

Swan Lake was the perfect Valentine's Day treat. It was a little taste of beauty and culture and it made me feel very classy and very New York. Plus everything is beautiful at the ballet...

Fortune-ate

Today, there was a Fortune Teller at Juilliard as a fun Valentine's Day activity for the students. I got suckered into getting my fortune told by one of my coworkers who was in charge of the Valentine's Day festivities.

I stepped into the room and a blond woman with tons of cards sat at a table waiting for her first customer. I sat across from her and she began reading me.

Here are some things that are in store for me:

-A relationship is in my future (in the next year or 2).
-Said relationship may result from a trip (either a weekend trip or a singles trip or even a trip in a car).
-She saw that I had been with a guy who was "obsessed with alcohol" who I thought loved me. He was too in love with alcohol and his lifestyle to love another. Because of him, I've become a bit gun shy about the whole relationship thing. She told me to forgive him and move on. (SPOT ON - SCARY!)
-I was told to beware of my purse - I'm vulnerable to theft.
-She asked if I'd recently spent a bit of money and warned me to keep my savings.
-A coworker will reprimand me and I will feel like a child. She said that because I'm outgoing, most people like me. But I have a coworker who does not and this coworker is likely a female. (eek!)
-My palm reading revealed that I am very intelligent and that I will be just fine in any career I choose.

Lately, I've been beating myself up about the Dennis situation. I'm learning to think of it as a life experience rather than a failure (that's easier said than done). On Friday evening, after a pretty awful date, a woman who I was chatting with on the bus said that I seemed like I was in a good place in my life. It felt good to hear from a completely objective outside perspective that I was on the right track. I'm optimistic about what the future holds for me. Hopefully there is a job and a guy and an awesome apartment out there somewhere waiting for me to snatch them up.

Thesis in the works...

So, after my PDR client fell through and after many conversations with both my adviser and my Advanced Seminar instructor, I've completely changed the structure of my Master's Thesis.

Since I plan on going back for a PhD one day in the future, I've decided to write a PPQ (paper of publishable quality). This is a large document (40 pages-ish) on a research topic that has not yet been significantly explored.

The problem that I will be looking at is the dying interest in classical music in New York. I will be examining the trends of young donors in the classical arts - methods used to recruit donors, what attracts donors to organizations, and the ways in which organizations reach out to young people specifically. My research will include interviews with fund raisers, donors, and staff members of organizations that seek funding. In addition, I will collect previous studies of donor trends in New York in the arts. I will also compare efforts in New York to other successful practices. My goal is to develop a framework for replicable models for arts organizations. Large arts organizations have staffs that can accommodate innovative thinking and risk taking whereas smaller, lower budget arts organizations do not have that luxury. The project will be framed as "learning from success" instead of "learning from mistakes."

I'm excited to get started and will keep you posted on my project!