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!

Beginning of the End

Today is the first day of my last semester of grad school. I will be very happy to have my nights free again but there is a lot that I will miss. I will miss my fellow students, my amazing professors, the interesting course work, and the exciting and useful projects.

My master's thesis is going to be a "Professional Decision Report" otherwise known as a PDR. The project is one in which students are paired with an organization to produce a document of significant value. Right now I'm still in the process of fleshing out the details and getting access to the information I will need. I'm very excited to get started on my project and will post an update as soon as I get the green light.

In love life news - Dennis and I have broken up. Breaking up is never easy but it seems like we are at such different places in our lives. Dennis is still partying (going out getting drunk multiple times a week, day drinking every weekend, flirting with girls on twitter and at the bar, spending all of his money at bars) whereas I am past that stage in my life. I am ready for a real commitment that could lead to a possible long-term relationship (someone that could be potential husband material and wants to start a future with me) and he is not looking for something so serious. He started to resent me. I started to get down on myself. I was willing to compromise and adjust my life to accommodate having a boyfriend. He was not willing to make any changes to his life to accommodate having a girlfriend. It just didn't work.

I think the most important thing I've learned from my relationship with Dennis is that relationships aren't about finding the perfect missing puzzle piece that will fit into the rigid structure of your life. It's more like clay that you have to mold and adjust - it's a process that should never stop for as long as the relationship is going on.

I'm back out there in the dating scene once again. Get ready for the crazy stories that come with being single in the city.